Indian women’s cricket team fielding is improving day-by-day. Their top class fielding one of the main reasons to achieve success on the recently concluded tour of South Africa, where the Indian women won the ODI and T20I series. Their fielding coach Biju George is feeling that Indian women’s fielding improvement is very impressive in the recent time.
Recently, Indian women played a three-match ODI series and five-match T20I series against South African women on the South African soil. Indian women won the ODI series by the 1-2 margin while the T20I series result was 1-3 in favour of the visitors.
After that successful tour, Indian women’s T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur had pointed out their impressive fielding for their success. She said, “Our fielding, in which over the last two-three years we were lacking, has improved and that was the biggest takeaway from the tour.”
Also read: Harmanpreet Kaur has a faith in the young talent Jemimah Rodrigues
Taking about the fielding improvement of the Indian women’s cricket team, their fielding coach Biju George told TOI, “The improvement, I would say, is more than 100%. The players are spending one hour of every training session on fielding. Naturally, the differences are there to see.”
Showing their impressive numbers, Biju also claimed, “Globally, including men’s cricket, on average 1.1 catches are being dropped per game. But if you look at the ODI and T20 series against South Africa, in seven completed matches we dropped only five. So we have managed to stay way below the global mark for one full series.”
Biju has been appointed as a fielding coach of Indian women’s cricket team since the end of the May 2017, just before the 2017 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup. Under his ongoing tenure, Indian women cricketers’ fielding is looking impressive and high quality.
Also read: BCCI Announces Women’s Squad For The ODI Series Against Australia
Talking about their earlier problems in the fielding and later improvements, Biju said, “Earlier, some of the players were a bit hesitant when a powerful shot came towards them and if you are not confident, you are not going to stop the ball. But now all of them want the ball to come to them and are not worried about how fast it is coming.
“Some were not comfortable diving on the field. There is a technique to dive properly and I taught them using a reverse chain mechanism with each step of diving deconstructed from the last. The players understood if I can do this in my 50s, they can easily do it in their age.”
Talking about the Indian women’s cricket team, Biju said, “Even after a long journey, the players never miss their training and it is seniors like Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami who show the way with their work ethic. The professionalism of head coach Tushar Arothe also guides them.”
