India have been going through a great phase where they are nearly unbeatable across formats. REcently they whitewashed South Africa by 3-0 at home. With this, they registered their 11 11 consecutive series win. Apart from batting and bowling, fielding is the one thing where India have improved a lot. While talking about that, fielding coach R Sridhar shared that Ravindra Jadeja is one of the best fielders in recent times.
“In my opinion, the perception of Indian fielding has changed in the last few years. Faf (du Plessis) lauded Indian fielders’ dominance over South Africa. Even during the World Cup, the opposition captains spoke highly about our fielding. I think the focus for that has come from the top as to what (coach) Ravi Shastri or Virat wants. Even a newcomer like Shahbaz Nadeem, the change has been in two areas: mindset and fitness. Changing the mindset is pertaining to what the teams want to achieve, and fitness was a crucial part of that,” he said to the Times of India.
He further praised Ravindra Jadeja.
“Jaddu’s presence on the field lifts the team’s spirits. He is someone who can keep the opposition on their toes with his fielding. He has an intimidating presence on the field. I wouldn’t like to go very far but in the last decade or so Jadeja has been the best fielder India has had,” Sridhar told.
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He also shared his views on the ever-rising question of the comparison between Wriddhiman Saha and Rishabh Pant.
“There were no concerns at all. He (Saha) was easing into the rigours of international cricket during the West Indies series. He had also played a few games for India ‘A’ before that. Once we were playing in India, we brought back Saha. He is our best wicketkeeper and his skills were for all to see during the India-SA series,” he said.
He further added, “It’s unfair to compare the two as both Saha and Rishabh have their strengths. One is young, while the other is experienced. Rishabh is our future and Saha is our present and both are doing brilliantly.”
While he was asked on what is the area where India should work on to improve upon their fielding, Sridhar shared his views on that too.
“Developing a pool of players who can field at slip cordon is an area we are working on. In shorter formats, lateral movement and throwing from the deep are the areas we are focusing on as we head into the World T20 next year,” he concluded.
