T20 World Cup: 'New captain is not bothered about fielding,' former India cricketer criticises Rohit Sharma

Add as a preferred source on Google

New Delhi, Nov 1: Team India's sloppy fielding against South Africa in their previous ICC T20 World Cup 2022 league match in Brisbane was a big reason for their first defeat in the tournament.

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli - two of the team's important fielders in the side - were not in the best of their forms on the pitch and Men In Blue paid for it. After losing the game, captain Rohit lamented that he isn't proud of the fielding effort.

"We were sloppy in the field. We want to set a high standard in that department. We're not proud of it," he Rohit said during the post-match presentation.

"We were just not good enough. (In) The last two games, we were pretty good on the field. We couldn't hold our chances, we missed a few run-outs. We need to keep our heads high and learn from this game," a critical Rohit added further.

Fielding has been India's peril off late and as per Cricbuzz data, Team India has dropped 32 catches in 35 T20Is in between the last two World Cups.

While Rohit may have expressed his concern over his team's fielding standards but according to former India cricketer Ajay Jadeja, the team management hasn't given much thought to their fielding. Jadeja - who was one of the best fielders in the world during his playing days - claimed India's performance in the fielding department has depleted ever since Kohli stepped down as skipper.

Kohli used to pride himself as the captain of a good fielding unit but Jadeja believes Rohit is more concerned about his team's batting and bowling.

Jadeja, while speaking on Cricbuzz, said, "I think the Asian teams are not giving importance to fielding. The last time I heard about giving importance to fielding was when Virat Kohli became Team India's captain. He had taken a decision of including only those players, who are good fielders. He is no longer the captain and the coach has also changed. The new captain is not bothered about fielding. He is more concerned about batting and bowling. So, the current Team India that you have is not much athletic."

Criticising Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Shami's fielding capabilities, Jadeja added further, "Who are the fielders we have? We have Ashwin and Shami. In terms of bowling, these two are great but you can't expect good fielding from them. When you pick a team, you know what you want and I think Team India has not given much attention to their fielding."

Team India will now face Bangladesh in their next group match on Wednesday (November 1) at Adelaide Oval.