Despite performing well to qualify for the Champions Trophy semifinals, Lalchand Rajput feels that there is not one but several areas of improvement, especially in what he describes as “fielding.”
As manager, Rajput led India to become the first-ever World T20 champions in 2007, and he feelTs the players have to work harder on their catching.
Two catches were dropped by Indian fielders during the opening match against Bangladesh. This allowed the opponent to come back into the game.
Rohit Sharma dropped the catch at a stage when Bangladesh’s situation was desperately bad: They were 35 for 5. Jaker Ali went on to make life miserable for India by scoring 50 runs.
In the following over, Towhid Hridoy was dropped by Hardik Pandya, and he went on to score a century and help his team finish 228 all-out.
India also dropped a few catches in their match against Pakistan, but those mistakes did not cost them dearly in that match.
“Fielding, yes, we can always improve. Dropping catches in vital junctures would take away matches from us. Fielding could always be better,” said Rajput, the current head coach of UAE, to PTI.
India has fielded the same eleven in their opening two matches and is to face New Zealand next. Having reached the semifinals already, should they make any changes for their last match?
Unless there is a fitness issue or a player who feels like resting, Rajput thinks there should be no tinkering with the winning combination.
Rajput said, “I don’t think they will try it (new) as this one because when the team is doing good, you would want the same momentum.” Unless there is some injury, or somebody wants to be rested, I don’t think there will be a change. It’s up to the management because there are a few days in between. But I would always say that you continue with a winning team.”
According to Rajput, India has been loud and rigorous in their approach and predicts that they would win comfortably in the tournament ahead.
