The Hindu : Sport : Fielding is India’s worry

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Monday, Aug 27, 2007
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Sport

Fielding is India’s worry

Good athletes are mandatory to consistently win ODI games, writes Geoffrey Boycott

The biggest question within the England camp right now must be whether Andrew Flintoff can return to full match fitness before this series ends.

The problem is that after a long lay-off, no matter how much you’ve been practising at the gym and how ready you are to play, match fitness is never fully yours, so most players tend to pick up the occasional niggle when they return after a gap, and Flintoff crashed into that advertising board anyway.

So I wouldn’t worry too much about it yet. What I would worry about, however, is the narrowness of India’s win at Bristol. With 329 to defend, you would think victory would be at a canter, but India almost allowed England to get away with it.

The spinners may have won it for India this time, but they will not do it all the time. The seamers looked completely innocuous, and I have to say Ajit Agarkar still looks painfully ordinary. Yes, Munaf Patel took a beating, too, but at least he had three wickets to show for it.

I believe he is India’s bowler for the future, but he is also a classic example of the ‘sitting on his backside’ syndrome I wrote about in my earlier article. Whether through injury or otherwise, Munaf is spending far too much time in the dressing room as a passenger on tours abroad.

So Munaf is obviously rusty owing to long periods of inaction, and will simply have to play more matches.

The other bit of trouble here and I refer to all the Indian players in general is that I don’t think they are trained to be athletes. They are talented batsmen and bowlers, but not very good athletes, which obviously affects their fitness.

You can count on the fingers of one hand the fielders who have stood out for India in the past: players like Ajay Jadeja, Mohammed Azharuddin, Robin Singh and Mohammed Kaif. For the same reason, you will find brilliant slip catchers in the Indian side like Sachin Tendulkar and V.V.S. Laxman, but no outstanding cover fielder. And good athletes in the team are mandatory if you are to consistently win ODI games.

This is particularly so Monday’s third ODI at Edgbaston.

Because it is a very early start by English standards — they’re starting at 10.15 a.m., when the normal starting time for Test matches is 11 a.m. — there might be some traces of morning mist or fog. Therefore, the toss will be a ticklish one to win. Both captains know that they have so far won in this series by batting first, so the first impulse will be to bat for whoever calls correctly.

Gameplan

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