India vs England Test: Team works overtime to set the right field

Birmingham: Team India’s training session at Edgbaston started with the usual warmup fielding drills, but there was a distinctive spike in the intensity after around 15 minutes.

Usually, two days ahead of a Test match, fielding practice is restricted to ordinary drills, merely to enable the players to get a feel of the ball in their hands.

Monday, however, was a different story. It was apparent that the forgettable fielding performance in the first Test had touched a nerve in the camp.A large portion of the reason behind the heartbreak at Headingley last week could be attributed to multiple dropped catches. Yashasvi Jaiswal’s sub-standard days in the field somehow overshadowed a superlative century that got India off to a strong start in the series.

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On Monday, before fielding coach T Dilip started the regular slip-catching session, he arranged a ‘blind-catching’ drill. He put a black sheet up to the height of the chest of the players and started hurling catches from the other side, with the balls deviating off an inclined equipment and travelling under the sheet to the players on the other side. The drill went on for a good 10 minutes before Dilip arranged his slip cordon alongside wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant for fast bowlers.

The noticeable absentee in the cordon was Jaiswal.

The slip cordon set by Dilip had Karun Nair at first slip, KL Rahul at second, Shubman Gill at third with Sai Sudharsan and Nitish Kumar Reddy swapping places at fourth slip and gully. “We always want depth in the catching department in England. You are always going to have four catchers at some stage in the game. Yashasvi has been a very good catcher for us. We want to manage his confidence,” Team India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said after the training session on Monday.Jaiswal and Abhimanyu Easwaran were subjected to a rigorous session of close-in catching, with helmets on, likely for the spinners, with Doeschate himself carrying out the drill. He pointed out the need for steady close-in catchers. “There is also an argument for short-leg being a very important position, particularly if you are going to play two spinners. We want more catchers in that position. We are looking at being a versatile fielding unit with more guys doing more jobs and maybe just to give you Yashasvi a break from catching at gully for a little while.

His hands are quite sore. We want to get his confidence back up,” Doeschate said.The standard of fielding, it is clear, has become a massive point of discussion within the team.