R Sridhar accepts India not living up to standards in fielding

R Sridhar (IANS)

Auckland, Feb 7:  Team India's fielding coach R. Sridhar has accepted the fact that the team has not been able to live up to the standards when it comes to fielding in the recent months and their performance has been just average.

"The West Indies series at home was somewhere we really dropped. We were average, to say the least. But definitely we have not lived to the standards as we did in the world Cup or even in the build-up to the World Cup in the last couple of years," said Sridhar on the eve of the second ODI against New Zealand at the Eden Park.

"We empower the fielders so that they can become their own captain and they can take decisions on their own because the captain has got too much on his plate at certain times. That's what we speak about," he added.

India's poor show on the field was in fact one of the main reasons why Virat Kohli's men failed to defend a 348-run target in Hamilton.

Sridhar also accepted the fact they need to put up a good show on the field if they want to make a comeback in the ongoing series.

While there were many overthrows, one of the slips that hurt India severely was the dropped chance of Ross Taylor who went on to score an unbeaten ton. Kuldeep Yadav dropped Taylor when he was batting on 10 and the New Zealand No. 4 then smashed an unbeaten 103 to guide the hosts to victory.

"Overthrows, I mean, you are talking about Manish (Pandey) -- he took a chance. He had to do it, and we needed a wicket at that time. You can bargain four runs for a wicket and it was the best player who was there at that time. These things happen, you can't look too deep into that.

"...that catch should have been taken. Probably it was after his first over, maybe he was thinking about his previous over, could be anything. It could not be a technical aspect at all," said Sridhar while talking about Taylor's catch.

"We are trying to get better but we were average. There is no doubt about that. We can get better," he added.

The Indian fielding coach, however, refused to blame tight schedules for the "downward curve" while conceding that hectic travelling is affecting the side's practice plans.

"That's the nature of the current schedule, we have to take it. We have to play around it but we hardly had a session during the entire T20 schedule. There is not much we can put in terms of technical work on the ground...," he pointed out.

"It is a tight schedule but it is not a complaint and it is not an excuse at all. We need to be better," he added.

Sridhar further said that the team management will talk to the players to figure out the problem areas.

"There are a lot of things we need to address. We will actually have dialogues with the player and see what is more important for a player and then go about it in that way," he said.

"We do the listening more than the talking. We take the feedback from the players and if there is anything to be added, we surely add our perspective and then the best possible decision is taken to get the best out of the player each time he goes out on the park," he added.