Former India coach hits back at Yashasvi Jaiswal's critics after fielding mishaps in first England Test

New Delhi:

The first Test of the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy saw England register a comfortable win against team India. Both sides locked horns at Headingley in Leeds, and after five days of cricket, it was England who emerged victorious as they chased down a target of 371 runs in the second innings as Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley put on a brilliant show in the second innings. 

Where India excelled with the bat, their bowling and fielding departments had a scope of improvement, and star batter Yashasvi Jaiswal was a centre of criticism as the batter dropped four crucial catches in the clash, which saw the England batters capitalise. 

With Jaiswal facing major backlash over his fielding, the Indian team’s former fielding coach R. Sridhar took centre stage and came to Jaiswal’s defence, stating that it was very easy to pass comments from the commentary box, and backed Jaiswal to make a comeback in the upcoming matches. 

“He’s actually an excellent gully fielder. Make no mistake. He’s had just two bad games — one in Melbourne, one here in Leeds. Otherwise, he’s been exceptional. The catches he took against Bangladesh in Kanpur were outstanding. It’s easy to sit in the commentary box and criticise, but these are challenging conditions, and for many of them, it’s their first experience of this environment," Sridhar said in an interview with Sportstar. 

Sridhar branded India’s fielding in 1st Test as unacceptable

Apart from the dropped catches, it was evident that the Indian team failed to get the basics right when it came to fielding. Speaking on the same, Sridhar branded India’s efforts in the field as unacceptable. “The standard of ground fielding which is exhibited is not acceptable. Unlike catching, ground fielding is something which is totally in your control. You should know which ball to put your body behind, which ball to attack, which ball to play safe,” Sridhar said.