IND v AUS 2020: Who is Team India's fielding coach?
Team India's horrendous fielding has continued its downward spiral in the ongoing day-night Test match against Australia. At the time of writing, the Indians have already dropped 5 chances in the hosts' 1st innings of the Adelaide Test.
The performance means Team India's fielding coach, R. Sridhar has a lot of work on his hands in the coming days.
Hailing from Mysore, Sridhar played domestic cricket for Hyderabad from 1989/90 to 2000/01. He played 35 First-Class matches and 15 List A matches for his state as a frontline spinner.
In 2007, Sridhar completed a three-level course for accreditation as a coach. He trained the Hyderabad Under-19 team for 3 years and also coached the state's U-16 team for a year.
Sridhar became a part of India's National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore in 2011. His first fielding coaching stint was for the India Under-19 team in the same year.
In April 2014, Kings XI Punjab roped in Sridhar as the fielding coach of the team. In August that year, he was named the fielding coach of Team India for the ODI series against England. BCCI extended his contract after the series and he continues in the same role today.
Team India's fielding is hurting them big time
Sridhar will have his task cut out after the team's performance on Friday. On Day 2 of the Test, Team India's fielders dropped two regulation catches off Australian batsman Marnus Labuschagne. Prithvi Shaw and Jasprit Bumrah were the culprits and Labuschagne went on to make 47.
Mayank Agarwal also dropped Aussie skipper Tim Paine early in his knock and he went on to become the highest scorer for the hosts in their 1st innings.
There were also a couple of half-chances dropped by Virat Kohli and Wriddhiman Saha earlier in the innings. Kohli took a blinder of a catch to dimiss Cameron Green but the captain was poor in the field during the white-ball series.
Australian batsmen are among the most dominant in the world and giving them so many second chances could cost India big time.
The lackluster display in the ODI could be attributed to possible rustiness at the start of the long tour. However, R. Sridhar and co. will need to tidy up the fielding to provide Team India's bowlers with as much support as possible in the Test matches.