India got a ton of fire from the fans and cricket specialists for their grim fielding against South Africa and former India player Ajay Jadeja expressed that Group India has quit zeroing in on their fielding after the end of Virat Kohli’s tenure as skipper.
After two back-to-back wins, Team India lost to South Africa by five wickets in their Super 12 Group 2 clash in the ongoing T20 World Cup. A great bowling execution by the Proteas restricted the Rohit Sharma-led side to 133/9 in 20 overs.
Later, India showed intent with the ball as Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Shami took early wickets however South Africa chased down the target in 19.4 overs. In that thrilling experience, Team India had a forgettable outing regarding their fielding.
First, Virat Kohli dropped a sitter which gave Aiden Markram a respite. It was followed by captain Rohit missing a run-out chance against the same batter.
India got a ton of fire from the fans and cricket specialists for their grim fielding against South Africa. Former India player Ajay Jadeja expressed that Group India has quit zeroing in on their fielding after the end of Virat Kohli’s tenure as skipper.
“I think the Asian teams are not giving importance to fielding. The last time I heard about giving importance to fielding was when Virat Kohli became Team India’s captain. He had decided against including only those players, who are good fielders. He is no longer the captain and the coach has also changed. The new captain is not bothered about fielding. He is more concerned about batting and bowling. So, the current Team India that you have is not much athletic,”
said Jadeja in a video posted on Cricbuzz.
Jadeja further criticized Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Shami’s fielding capabilities.
“Who are the fielders we have? We have Ashwin and Shami. In terms of bowling, these two are great but you can’t expect good fielding from them. When you pick a team, you know what you want and I think Team India has not given much attention to their fielding,”
he said.
India will next face Bangladesh in their Super 12 Group 2 clash, at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday.
India Squad for World Cup: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammad Shami.
Standby Players: Mohammed Siraj, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Shardul Thakur.