Former India player Aakash Chopra has said dropped catches were one of the main reasons for the Indian team’s defeat in the first Test against England as well. He added that Yashasvi Jaiswal, who is generally a good fielder,
failed to grab many catches on his bad day. Notably, India faced a five-wicket loss to England in the first Test in Leeds as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “Catches win matches. It will always be the case, but hold the catches at least. We dropped so many catches. We could have easily seized the initiative in the first innings, but we couldn’t do that, and it was because we aren’t grabbing catches at all. (Jasprit) Bumrah kept getting edges and catches were being dropped. In the end, it seemed like even hope was lost.”

“It’s bizarre because Yashasvi Jaiswal is being criticized a lot currently, but he used to catch decently. He is not a bad fielder, but either the confidence has gone down or something else has happened, because when the poor guy drops catches, he drops many. We saw that in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as well,” he further added.

READ HERE: “He is like a computer” – Steven Finn hails Jasprit Bumrah after his fifer on Day 3

However, Aakash Chopra said that dropped catches showed that Team India didn’t get a big lead, with their bowlers also bowling extra overs in the first innings as well.

“Try to understand its cascading effect. If we had taken catches in the first innings, the lead would have been 125 to 150 runs. If you had been ahead by 150 runs, it would have meant that Bumrah and the remaining bowlers wouldn’t have bowled too much in the first innings,” he said.

“Then you would have given a target of 450 and not 350 in the fourth innings, and you would have had fresher bowlers. So it’s a double whammy. You got a six-run lead because you dropped catches, and then when it’s the turn for the bowlers, they come with so much workload that they don’t have enough to offer again,” Aakash Chopra concluded.