5 unorthodox fielding positions set by different captains that resulted in a wicket
Like unorthodox batting stances of batsmen and unorthodox bowling actions of bowlers in cricket, there were many instances that we have seen unorthodox fielding placements from captains.Also read: Cricket Fielding Positions:The origins of field placement names in cricketIt is one of the tacticsthat most captains of modern cricket have used to get set batsmen out. However, these tactics aren't completely failure-proof. They sometimes work and the captain is praised for it, but when they backfire, the captain is forced to bear the brunt of the backlash.Here are five instances when unorthodox fielding positions set by different captains, has actually resulted in a wicket and went on to earn those captains plenty of praise for their inventive thinking.
#1 MS Dhoni\'s use of leg slip
Match – 3rd Test between India and Australia at Melbourne from 26-30 December 2014
MS Dhoni is known for doing special and different things on the field. In particular, he was known for his weird field placements. MS Dhoni has constantly used a leg slip. Many times, he has asked his spinners, especially Harbhajan and Ashwin to bowl into the rough outside the leg, to try and get the batsmen to flick it to leg slip.
Many commentators and experts scratched their heads over Dhoni’s absurd field placing, but he didn’t care and stuck to his own plans. And guess what? At times, it did work!
Exactly, here is an incident when he used a leg slip formula against Steven Smith with a fast bowler and caught Smith at leg slip. Ajinkya Rahane was the fielder there and he grabbed the catch of Steven Smith when Smith was going strong with Chris Rogers in the 2nd innings of a Test match but it was Dhoni’s plan to trap Smith and it worked and India had successfully removed Steven Smith on 14.