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What used to be an eyesore in Indian cricket has now turned into one of its major strengths.
There were times when former India captains Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi or Ajit Wadekar were forced to hide their famous spin trio since they were poor fielders.
When M.S. Dhoni took over the reins of Indian cricket and won the ICC T20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007, his team too had slow movers, but extraordinary batsmen and bowlers served the team’s cause. He had admitted then of having a few weak fielders who had failed to stop the flow of runs or hold on to sharp catches.
With the advent of IPL in 2008, the fielding standards in general began to improve, what with the franchises appointing specialists fielding coaches such as Jonty Rhodes (Mumbai Indians) and Steve Rixon (Chennai Super Kings).
Excellent season
Seeing the early successes of Rajasthan Royals (2008) and Deccan Chargers (2009), it was clear that the two teams had immensely benefited from keen fielding displays. IPL brought about a complete transformation to fielding in its successive editions.
The ongoing sixth edition has already produced some outstanding catches and excellent ground fielding. Apart from cutting down on runs, most of the catches have won matches.
Kings XI Punjab’s Gurkeerat Singh’s one-handed flying catch; Ajinkya Rahane of Rajasthan Royals’ blinder at point; Ross Taylor’s one-handed effort at covers for Pune Warriors; Kieron Pollard plucking the ball out of thin air in the deep mid-wicket region for Mumbai Indians or Cameron White’s diving effort in the slips for Sunrisers as well as Rishi Dhawan’s brilliant running effort for Mumbai Indians have all given ample evidence of the improved standards .
Special mention should be made of two of the game’s best catchers, Ricky Ponting and Rahul Dravid, who, defying their age, went on to take two of the best catches in this IPL.
Now, Dhoni can be proud of having eight to nine world class fielders in his line-up, including Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja, to name a few.
These players can field in any position and still make a difference to the team’s effort to win matches.
> sabanayakan.s@thehindu.co.in
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