India's ordinary fielding leaves Biju George with many notes

Harmanpreet Kaur said at the post-match presentation ceremony that she was “disappointed” with the effort.

Remember the 2016 World T20 at home, where India leaked so many easy runs in the outfield and dropped crucial catches in the three matches that they lost to Pakistan, England, who reached the target of 91 on a really sluggish surfaced in Dharmasala with just an over to spare, and West Indies that it cost them a place in the semifinals. Yes, the batting unit was not up to the mark in the three games, but a bit more awareness on the field could have carried India into the knockouts.

Sushma Verma, for example, dropped a catch behind the stumps against Pakistan. She redeemed herself with two sharp run-outs, but that one error allowed Pakistan to be ahead of the target when rain stopped play and Duckworth-Lewis method was used to decide the winner. The margins of those three losses were two runs, two wickets and three runs respectively. “As a fielding unit, we were inconsistent,” Mithali Raj, the then captain said at the press conference after the loss to West Indies in Mohali. “When we thought we were squeezing them for runs, we let them down ourselves with slip-ups through boundaries.”

Of India’s 42 T20I losses, five have been under the margin of five runs or less and four by three wickets or less. Lets not even count the ten losses that have come with an over or less to spare. Game of small margins.

So less women’s matches are on television that it is impossible to remember when was the last time India put up a complete fielding show in T20Is. Maybe the first game against Australia in Adelaide in January 2016 that set the tone for a 2-1 series win, the first against the strongest opposition in the circuit across formats. They were so good in that game on a big ground that Purnima Rau, the coach then, thought it to be India’s benchmark.

Rau did not have a fielding coach for a long time, and the load on her was quite heavy. In fact there have been very few instances in the past where India has had a full-time fielding coach. That is why the appointment of Biju George for the post before the 2017 World Cup and then handing him a two-year contract later that year was considered as pioneering. Finally, the fielding coach had the mandate to plan long term instead of thinking of ad-hoc solutions.

India’s fielding has improved under Biju, and his intent right from the time he took the job has been infectious. But there is only so much beyond taking notes that he can do when his fielders drop sitters.

Remember how their lethargy and indecisiveness on the field cost them the T20 Asia Cup final against Bangladesh in Malaysia earlier this year?

When Biju first came into the setup, he was not surprised by the gap he found in the standards of men’s and women’s fielding. He had after all been associated with Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League before this assignment. He saw that players were hurrying themselves on to the ball, and not setting their base correctly before picking up and throwing. He recognised that the throwing arms of Indians are not as strong as compared to players from South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia. He found that while the non-Asian opposition could tap into the outfield and run two, India were not able to convert ones into twos. He understood that in changing landscape where more eyes were on the players, pressure of the occasion was a big factor, which led to mental fatigue and less concentration ability on the field. He found out that there were too many fielders to hide and most of them did not watch the ball closely enough. He empathised with the girls because most of them came from backgrounds where they did not have right facility to play till they got introduced into the professional setup, by when it was difficult to undo the bad habits in most cases. All that was fine, but Biju had a job on hand. Firstly, to ensure that fielding was up to the mark in the 2017 World Cup, and then secondly to draw a long-term plan.

Biju’s focus became inner-circle fielding and improving the percentage of direct hits. He got players to hit smaller stumps at practice sessions, so that they could easily target the real stump in match situation. He knew he could not change certain things in older players, so he aimed at making fielders safe to start with rather than spectacular. The results started to show. Remember Deepti Sharma’s direct hits in the World Cup? Mithali was surprised when she was not asked a question about India’s fielding by the scribes after one win in Derby. But there were still mistakes, and Biju kept at it. He made players catch balls and shout out the number mentioned in them, which ensured that they were watching till the ball was locked in their palm.

He stressed to the players to not be “limited by their thoughts”, and improved their reaching range which surprised some of them.

He made players realise the value of “expecting the ball to come to you”, asked them to improve on their accuracy and told them not to be overexcited. Instead he suggested them to take that extra few seconds before taking a decision. R Sridhar, the India men’s fielding coach, told Biju that on an average there are two dropped catches in every innings in an international match. That comforted him, but India were still not close to average.

After India returned from the World Cup, Tracy Fernandes, the physiotherapist, got a sports nutritionist to speak to the players at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore to see what changes they could make in their diet to stay fitter. Based on their body finding, different players adapted to the new lifestyle, and Biju was also helped by the fact that he got a younger lot of players like Jemimah Rodrigues and Radha Yadav to work with when India resumed their international commitment with a tour of South Africa in early 2018.

Remember that catch Rodrigues took on the square-leg boundary line in a crucial stage of the deciding T20I? Surely, no India women cricketer had pulled off such a catch in the past. But when India returned home, they were exposed once again against Australia and England. Yes, the hot summer was harsh and the body fluids were not always up to the mark to make that extra attempt, but working around it is a part and parcel of professional sports.

When the Indian team was back on television for the opening WT20 game against New Zealand on Friday, Deepti impressed once again with two outstanding catches in the outfield. Surely, it was a progress. The younger lot was covering more ground. Heck, the catch Veda Krishnamurthy took at first slip to dismiss Ayesha Zafar going low to her right was wonderful, as was Rodrigues producing a direct hit from cover point to send back Umaima Sohail.

The spark seemed to have been ignited, but then suddenly things went haywire. Smriti Mandhana, Veda and Poonam dropped three straightforward chances. By the time Poonam did not go for a catch of her own bowling, expecting Harmanpreet to run in from legside and take, India had lost the advantage after reducing Pakistan to 30 for 3. Tom Moody, on air, said that there had been so many lapses in the field already that no one looked keen to come close to any chance lest it gets held against them if it is not converted.

Biju’s woes continues despite India almost assured of a semifinal berth.

Pakistan’s lack of awarness while running between the wickets led to India being awarded ten penalty runs before the start of their chase of 134. Things could have been tighter in a match that was won with an over to spare. India cannot expect to be lucky always as the tournament enters the business end.