India lost the first Test against England in Leeds three days ago, but the outcome still stings. India was the second-best team despite scoring over 800 runs, taking the lead in the first innings, and possessing five individual centurion. England deserve all the praise for their performance in the fourth innings of the Headingley Test on Day 5, which saw them chase down a staggering 371. But somewhere it should also be noted that India squandered their chances and gave Ben Stokes and his men victory. What went wrong?
Fielding comes first. Eight catches in a match are sure to come back to haunt you, and the situation gets much worse when four of them come from the same fielder, in this case Yashasvi Jaiswal.
The top five, with the exception of Sai Sudharsan, all smashed hundreds, but when the outcome doesn't work out, the impact only becomes somewhat less pleasant. India's biggest disappointment was fielding. Former Australia wicketkeeper batsman Brad Haddin believes that Jaiswal's and skipper Shubman Gill's attitudes were reflected in this.
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“Every great team, no matter what year you’re playing, the one stand out feature they’ve always had is that they’ve been a great fielding team. And I think that is one legacy Gill should start to leave on this team now. He needs an attitude adjustment. If you want to field well and compete the whole time, it’s only attitude. You can do all your technical work off the field and have as many coaches as anyone, but it won't matter. Even in the IPL this year, the catching was horrible. And that could be a by-product,” he said on the LiSTNR Sport podcast.
Haddin went into overdrive, emphasizing the value of fielding and comparing it to batting or bowling. He brought up the young Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who made headlines for his record IPL century, and said that if the young player wants to succeed, he must become a great fielder above all else.
“Take the young kid [Vaibhav Suryavanshi] from Rajasthan for example. Everyone is talking about how well he batted, and it was unbelievable. But if you’re going to be a great player, he’s got to work on his fielding, his presence in the game. The one thing I would say to India is find a way to be the best fielding team in the world because you got the talent everywhere else,” he said.
Haddin concluded by commenting on India's bottom order, another weak point that cost them the match. India crashed to 364 from 286/3 in the second innings, and 471 all-out from 430/3 in the first innings. When the opposition's final five batters are outscoring you, it's time to end the fun and games. This is not the first time India's tail has let them down.
"What hasn't happened for the first time is India's batting collapse. There’s a lot of pressure on that top order. If you get through them, they will run through the remaining,” added Haddin.
