Errors won't be swept under the carpet: India fielding coach Sridhar

The leg-side trap by India’s bowling unit to choke the Australian batsmen—hatched in July last year as revealed by bowling coach Bharat Arun—worked wonders during India’s 2-1 series win. But for it to be executed as well as the visitors did, another dimension had to be fine-tuned: the catching in some of the most challenging areas on the field. Leg slip, leg gully, backward short leg, backward square leg—all of them needed to be at their sharpest, without the clear vision of the ball that the slip cordon usually gets from outside edges. These positions are often a blind side for fielders with the sight of the ball covered by the batsman.

It’s where India’s fielding coach R Sridhar swung into action, getting under the helmet himself in training sessions to prepare the designated fielders for the final stage of the out-of-the box tactic.

“We asked someone to throw the ball hard, I was wearing a helmet and we were flicking the ball on to the leg side to prepare for that plan,” Sridhar said over the phone. “We identified the fielders who were likely to stand there, and we had someone throwing and flicking or pulling the ball to the leg gully or leg slip area. We practiced catches for that like we would practice for the backward short leg position.”

Think of Cheteshwar Pujara's low catch at leg slip to dismiss Steve Smith in the first innings in Melbourne off R Ashwin, or of Shubman Gill's smart grab at a slightly closer and finer backward square leg to stop Marnus Labuschagne’s flick and hand Mohammed Siraj his maiden Test wicket in the same innings. It set into motion a successful strategy that engineered India’s remarkable turnaround after the Adelaide debacle and left the hosts gasping for run-scoring opportunities.

India dropped a few catches in the series—so did Australia and arguably at more crucial junctures like the last day of the drawn Sydney Test—and Sridhar acknowledges that they have already spoken about it as a group. We’ll get to that later. Before that let's talk about the aspects on the field that contributed to an Indian overseas series triumph like few others.

“Sticky fingers Rohit Sharma, creating a record,” Sridhar said of Sharma’s five catches in Brisbane, four of them at slips, which equalled the record for most catches by an Indian in a Test against Australia. “We saw how Ravindra Jadeja ran Steve Smith out (a direct hit from outside the circle in Sydney), or how well Ajinkya Rahane caught against the spinners at slips. Mayank Agarwal did reasonably well except for that one error in Adelaide. Shubman is an extremely good student of the game. We saw Wriddhiman Saha jumping and doing some magic behind the stumps. Even Rishabh Pant took a couple of brilliant catches in Brisbane. I thought Rishabh did very well in Brisbane as a wicketkeeper. He is definitely improving a lot.”

His batting was critical for India's series win, but Pant the wicketkeeper has some way to go. If the Australia tour showed up some of the areas he needs to work on as a gloveman, Sridhar believes it will be a different challenge for Pant to keep wicket in turning Indian conditions, but one that the 23-year-old has enough time and hunger to work towards.

“The key aspect for him is working hard on his technique and glove work. He is someone who has understood now what needs to be done and is putting in a lot of hours. He is sacrificing his batting time and allotting it for his wicketkeeping. It is a great shift in mindset for him. Pant is a work in progress, he will definitely improve and he has got age on his side. He is putting in the hard yards on his glove work, and fingers crossed he will do well against England, if he gets an opportunity,” Sridhar said.

All the talk over the course of the Test series was about India being without their best batsman and frontline bowlers. But the team was also without two of its gun fielders—Virat Kohli who missed three Tests and Jadeja who got injured in the Sydney Test—for a large part of the series. “You can’t replace a Kohli or a Jadeja on the field; those two are of a different league altogether. But the young boys are very coachable, always ready to listen. I thought it was quite fruitful, and the boys are learning what requires to be done at the highest level and over a period of five days. It was a good insight for the boys and they’ll only get better from here,” Sridhar said.

Since Sridhar took up the role in 2014, Team India has evolved to become one of the most formidable fielding units in world cricket. In that regard, the series was a bit of an aberration, and Sridhar put a few chances that went abegging down to the difficulty in sighting the pink ball under lights in Adelaide, the high-pressure situation in Brisbane and shifting the mindset of fielders from white-ball to red-ball cricket.

“We did make a few errors. I don’t want it to be swept under the carpet. We had spoken about it, and we corrected it in Sydney and Melbourne where we caught really well," he said. "A couple of catches went down in Brisbane, where the intensity of the game was different. But that happens, we addressed it within the group and everybody understands what needs to be done, what mindset is required at different junctures of the game. The mindset differs from the white-ball game to the red-ball game, and the shift has to be made by the player. But we’ve got to cut them some slack.”

An example of that shift in mindset between formats was Jasprit Bumrah’s spilt catch in Adelaide off a Labuschagne pull shot. Stationed at the fine leg boundary, a leaping Bumrah instinctively tried to push the ball back inside the field of play instead of catching it. While in Test cricket that is dubbed a missed chance, in limited-overs cricket that could be five crucial runs saved.

“It’s a very split-second subconscious call. And these are mistakes which are worth making, because only if the player makes such mistakes will you be able to educate them and talk to them about the right approach in different formats. There are certain mistakes which are only learnt on the field of play under pressure. You can’t recreate that in practice,” Sridhar said.

Yet, what this series has done is bring to the fore the work done by India’s support staff behind the scenes in those very practice sessions. We now know of head coach Ravi Shastri and bowling coach Arun planning the Aussie downfall months before the tour. We now know, courtesy Sridhar, of batting coach Vikram Rathour talking to batsmen on what to expect in Australia even before the IPL and making individual plans for each of them to nullify the threat of Nathan Lyon. We now know of the team management backing the departing Kohli’s suggestion of promoting the left-handed Pant in the batting order and walking the talk in Sydney.

“Big hug to Vikram and Arun sir on how they rallied around the batting and bowling units. A lot of credit must go to Ravi Shastri for the way the boys played and the way things turned around after the Adelaide Test. It shouldn’t need a series victory of this magnitude to give him credit for what he has been doing for the last five years,” Sridhar said. And oh, not to forget the physios with the unimaginable task of giving the team management the luxury of fielding 11 players on the park amid the ever-growing walking wounded list. “They were the busiest people,” Sridhar said with a laugh. “The way Yogesh (Parmar) and Nitin (Patel) responded, it was magnificent. They had sleepless nights.”

Now, more than a week into the history and hysteria, Sridhar believes it’s time to move on to the upcoming series against England. “Because like we forgot Adelaide in 36 hours, we should also forget this,” he said.

SRIDHAR SPEAKS

On Jadeja’s brilliant run out of Smith in Sydney

It was easily one of his good efforts, and it was very crucial at that point of time. It’s difficult for you and me, but not for Jadeja. Every time Jadeja does something like that it is a piece of magic and you feel it is the best. But Jadeja has always done something better; you can compile a short film on it, I guess.

On the emotions of the final day in Brisbane

That day was just unbelievable. It’s very difficult to put into words. The way Rishabh took over, the way Washington played—it was better than the best rollercoaster ride in the world. That one day had many moments which took your breath away. I don’t think you’ll have too many days like that, and I’m fortunate to be a part of the team that day.

On growth of Siraj whom he has seen closely from his younger days in Hyderabad

Knowing the kid, we all knew he would be magnificent with the red ball in hand. We knew he had the skill sets and the wherewithal to bowl well and give us good breakthroughs. But after what he went through personally—with his father’s demise and also with the kind of abuses he had to cop—he surprised us with the way he came back and the kind of resilience and mental strength he showed.