Love for cricket is huge all around the world. Cricket is not just a game of batsmen or bowlers. A fielder also plays a key role in team’s success. Cricket experts believe that even if you have a low target on board to defend, still your team can defend it with the help of brilliant fielding skills provided a cut to cut bowling from the bowlers.
For example, we witnessed this scenario in the recently concluded IPL final season 10 where Mumbai Indians were able to defend the low score of 129 runs with a brilliant fielding and bowling performance against RPS and MI won the title by 1 run.
Fielder is one key player who can save crucial runs in the match for the team. He can pull out blinders of nowhere and can be a game changer. Every active fielder on the ground motivates the other teammates to perform better irrespective of the result of the match. Current Indian Cricket Team’s fielding is notching higher levels in the Indian Cricket History.
Here we look upon some of the best fielders who were/are a boon for the Indian Cricket Team:-
– by Rishita Patnaik
- MOHAMMAD KAIF
Mohammad Kaif is applauded as one of the best fielders of all time. He was placed on the covers along with Yuvraj Singh positioned on point. The opposition was always choked due to the pressure created by this duo (Kaif and Yuvraj) by brilliant pieces of fielding.
Kaif was one of the best fielders who was involved in improving the fielding standards of Indian Cricket significantly. He showed great athletic and fielding skills on the field and also recorded a number of direct hits from the cover position, from where only one stump is fully visible. This summarizes what a great fielder he was.
The impact of skilled fielding of Yuvraj Singh and his fielding partner Kaif, as already said, on the opposition was huge. Yuvraj Singh, a born fighter, is an inspiration for many in many ways. Apart from being a batting legend, Yuvraj is a star fielder for the Indian Team. He has executed many brilliant run outs and catches that left everyone bewildered.
Similar to a point, the gully is one more fielding position but a bit more square, in which Yuvraj has been excellent. Gully fielders require excellent reflexes and he was one of the best. In the history of fielding, Yuvraj is an asset the team India has ever produced.
Suresh Raina, the middle order batsman for team India, is applauded as one of the best fielders in the history of cricket. Suresh Raina has taken some of the breathtaking catches when he was positioned at slips. Catching the ball at slip position is one of the hardest things to do because the fielder at slips has only a fraction of second to respond and catch the ball.
Sometimes due to thick edges the speed of the ball increases which in turn decreases the reaction time of the fielder even further and in this, Suresh Raina has pulled out some of the blinders out of nowhere. Not only at slip, Raina can pull out any kind of tough catch or tough boundary save at any position on the field. His alertness, energy, flexibility, athletics, throws, and catches on the field have always been on-point and it always adds value to the Indian team.
- EKNATH SOLKAR
Eknath Solkar, Poor man’s Sobers, was a renowned fielder because of his excellent close fielding skills. He was one of the finest forward short leg fielders for India. Forward short leg position is the most difficult fielding position on the field. The fielder at forwarding short leg needs to concentrate and be alert all the time.
If he loses his concentration even for a second then he might have bruises over his body because a forward short leg is one of the nearest fielding positions to a batsman and ball can deflect anyway anytime. He was the best in this and he himself said the reason for his excellence by reciting that, ‘’I only watch the ball’’.
- RAVINDRA JADEJA
Ravindra Jadeja, the highly skilled spin all-rounder for team India, has always shown off his brilliant fielding skills. Be it in domestic, International cricket or any cricket league, Jadeja has been a style icon both on and off the field. He is one of the best fielders of the current Indian Team and has saved many crucial runs in matches for Team India with his acrobatics all over the field. He loves to execute direct hits and he is one of the best in the business.
Ravindra Jadeja’s accurate, quirky and energetic fielding makes him a super point fielder. A point fielder always needs to stop and sometimes dive to save a lot of boundaries. They need to take some of the tough catches where the ball heads towards them at a high speed.Hence, he is renowned to be the best fielder The Indian Cricket has ever produced.
– by Rishita Patnaik