Not the batting or the bowling. In the aftermath of Napier, these are the two facets of Indian cricket that will be under scrutiny but the real problem India have is fielding. Close in fielding.
India's slip cordon for the longest time has been Dravid at first, VVS at second, some one ( Sehwag mostly but that varies) at third. Kumble was the designated gully.
With Sachin moving into the first slip, the slip cordon reads - Sachin at first, VVS at second, Rahul at third, Sehwag in the gully.
And that is a real point of concern.
Because India does not have its next generation of slippers and close in catchers ready. We have, at various times, seen Robin Uthappa, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthick,Yuvraj Singh, Md. Kaif ( amongst others) man the slip cordon. Without much luck. Or results.
India now has a bowling attack that is capable of creating more chances than seen previously. But those chances have to be taken for India to be in the game and to win it. And right now, the prospects look bleak after the next year or so.
We also don't have a regular forward short leg and silly point.
And the worst aspect of all this is that we have not even begun grooming specialists for these spots.
The other glaring problem is throwing arms. We don't seem to have any. Munaf has a good arm, but he is a poor fielder. Sachin is the only other player with a good arm.Beyond that, there is no one. In either the current team or on the bench or in domestic cricket.
Post the Lord of the Rings tours, beginning with the IPL, it is imperative that India start identifying and grooming its next generation of slippers and close in catchers. And outfielders.We have the luxury and the latitude in terms of time to identify and finalize on the next batch of players who will take over from Dravid, Sachin and VVS not only their batting spots but their fielding spots as well. It is time we used the time wisely.
Monday, March 30, 2009
The real issues
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24 comments:
I agree. Close catching is what might decide whether India will reach (and maintain) the #1 spot.
Cheers adverbin :)
Well, I say we should have woken up when Kaif and Yuvraj were dropping millions of catches at FSL, SP, Slips and gullies.
M.Vijay did exceptionally well in close-in positions in his first test. Assuming that was not a flash in pan, I think he deserves a chance over Yuvraj - I mean Yuvraj has all this hype about his fielding being a strong suit which adds to his mediocre batting skills and thus makes a great package as a test batsman - we all have seen how thats not true - so can we do the decent thing and accept the truth as it is, second innings 54 notwithstanding - we have batsmen who can get same results as batsmen and are better fielders close-in so can we show Yuvraj the door - I mean we showed the door to Dravid, Dada and Lax for the same reason in ODIS and Yuvi benefitted from it so why dont we apply same logic against him in tests?
Well its a tricky thing how you will do that ..because I don't think you can select anybody on the basis of their slip fielding only and the current lot like Yuvraj are extremly strange creatures. He is a quite decent fielder by Indian standard but something happened to him when he was moved to slips I guess the same thing which happens to his batting in test matches outside India.So we can't move the current Indian batters to slips and new players can't be selected for their slip catching
Can anyone tell me what Robin Singh's contribution is to the side? He has been hanging around for quite a while and still could not produce a single decent slip fielder.
exactly. i agree with you Som. Whenever a fielder drops a catch, the colours go off his face immediately. If there is one superb catch pulled of the next four are being put down. We probably need someone like Hayden or Ponting. The fielding in test matches has been an issue since ages. While we do see a lot of improvement in the shorter version of the game.
And definitely, India should start looking for its next generation of slippers and close in catchers though we won't get to see many slip fielders being instilled as it is a T20 game. But still there is a chance.
I think they should first start by giving Robin the boot... Too long and nothing has improved. It is here that they genuinely need a south african.
Raj,
Murali Vijay at 5? Has he ever batted so low even in domestic cricket?
Cheers,
sure Indophile, it is a a tricky situation. But here is the thing - India has 30 contracted players. Surely some, if not all of them will be manning close in positions for their domestic teams? Can the selectors then work with the different franchises and domestic teams and ensure that these players man those positions on a consistent basis?
And can India show consistency in its slip cordon in all formats of the game instead of having different personnel filling in those spots at different times?
Cheers,
Som,
Singh himself was never a slipper, maybe thats why?
Thing is, Singh can operate within the team structure - I dont know how much latitude he has outside the team.
This is where the NCA and the franchises and the domestic teams have to come in - no point having Yuvraj Singh as a slipper if he is going to field at point for Punjab and the KXIP.
Cheers,
Rishabh,
There is opportunity everywhere - we play the T20 WC in England in early summer - the ball will swing and seam and will keep the keeper and the slippers interested.
Which gives us an opportunity to identify and consolidate the slippers!
Cheers,
Scorpi,
Jonty?
Cheers,
Absolutely Jonty... pay him even 10 times the price of an icon and he will create more value. In fact there is no need for even Jonty... even on an internship basis, their u19 team folks will impart better results.
Now what is that song... sad but true... yeah!
The problem India has is that their domestic games have no need for close in catchers, because most of the games come down to a first innings lead anyway, with no chance of a result and therefore no real focus on attacking fields after the second session of a four day match. And in ODIs or T20s there are usually at most one or maybe in the powerplay two slips. And then even in Tests, with the belters we have these days many games wind up in a situation where there are 5-6 boundary fielders for half the innings.
They could work on teaching these guys to throw though. That just comes down to practice. If you throw more, your arm will get better, unless you are injured.
Scorpi,
Jonty busy with he Mumbai Indians methinks Scorpi..Zaheer Khan first slip?
Cheers :),
cricketanalysisdotcom,
The was true even 20 ears ago and yet we have had RD and VVS come through the ranks.. Thing is, there seems to be o on right now who can be an automatic first or second slip ( and do remember that the tours are back so second in line players get the opportunity to lay both a home and abroad).
Also except for Akash Chopra, no silly point/forward short leg either.
There was a point sometime during our tour to Australia where the precept of rotating slips was put in place - between then and now, we haven't really nailed down the alternate slippers.
Agree about the throwing though..
Thanks for your comments and welcome to the blog.
Cheers,
homer, you missed the point, I was railing at the his fielding automatically saves 20 runs so even if he is an 25-average batsman, he is better than a 35-average batsman - multiple layered stupid argument that is.
Fielding is a reactive thing - you have to select people for primary skill and mould their secondary skills unless a ready made package is available
Yuvraj Singh has done nothing to justify is great fielder tag and IMO, anyone but Yuvraj is my policy - said M Vijay because he is the reserve batsman in the squad. Besides, I'm sure he can be better value as batsman than the cool dude who cannot play good spinners and who cannot play good seamers
Raj,
A reasoned argument. But what purpose does it serve to slot just anybody in the #5 spot just to get rid of Yuvraj?
Cheers,
Vijay at 3, Dravid at 6?
adverbin,
A temporary fix.. But what of the long term?
Cheers,
Assuming that Vijay is a success at 3, Dravid will stay at 6 till he retires. (Three specialist openers in the top three is good insurance). Thereafter, one of Raina, Sharma(Rohit), Pujara, Kohli or even Badrinath will repalce him. Other hopefuls will be Tiwari, Bhatia, Saha/Ojha (as WK to allow MSD to play as specialist batsman/captain) etc. Remember that Laxman and Tendulkar will be following Dravid into the sunset at about the same time, give or take 12 months.
adverbin,
None of the replacements are slippers. So the question remains - who are India's long term slip prospects?
Cheers,
You are right. However it is the short term prospect which is poor. In the long term, these new guys will grow into the job. (Sachin did not begin as a slipper). Hopefully!! In that case we are back to Yuvraj at slips, assuming his batting is good enough for a place in the XI.
adverbin,
The problem is that there is no one identified as replacements, nor are they being given ample time to spend in their new roles.
Cheers,
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