Chennai, Dec 16 (CRICKETNMORE) India's fielding coach R. Sridhar on Friday admitted a slip-up in overall fielding standards, particularly major lapses in catching, in the Test series against England.
India have won three of the four Tests so far to win the series. The fifth and final match of the series began here on Friday.
But India's victory has been marred to an extent by a consistent tale of missed catches and sloppy fielding efforts.
India drew the first Test at Rajkot, partly due to dropping as many as seven catches. They followed it up, grassing four opportunities in the second Test at Mohali.
In Chennai on Friday, England batsman Moeen Ali was granted a life, when on zero, by K.L. Rahul.
Ali punished India for the error, going on to score an unbeaten 120, to guide England to a healthy 284/4 at stumps on the first day.
Sridhar identified the deficiency in Rahul's effort.
"Maybe the timing of the jump could have been better,. But these things happen in cricket. Getting Moeen early would have definitely helped us," Sridhar said after the day's action.
"Our catching, especially our close catching behind the stumps off pace has not been up to the scratch as far as this series is concerned. We have set high standards over the last few years and this particular series has not been up to the mark.
The fielding coach said injuries to regular close-in catchers have also not helped India's cause but stopped short of putting it forth as an excuse.
"As far as our catching is concerned, it's a work in progress. You also know, there have been quite a few injuries going throughout the series and we have been changing personnel in the close cordon all the time."
Sridhar though accepted there is a lot of scope for improvement as they are determined to rectify mistakes.
"So, that is something we have been working on. It's not an excuse, but that is something we are working on and trying to manage the workloads and the injury part as far as the fingers are concerned and also the practices. We are working hard to improve and I am sure we'll only get better from here," he added.