Close catching still work in progress
COLOMBO: Abhinav Mukund set the benchmark in the first Test with two spectacular dismissals at short-leg and then declared he was keen to be known as a specialist close-in fielder. It’s a position which demands, apart from skills a lot of daring.
In the second Test, KL Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara pulled off one good catch each at close-in in the first innings but overall the standard of catching was not up to mark.
Rahul floored a straightforward catch off Dimuth Karunaratne on the fourth morning, and the opener, who was on 95, thwarted India till after lunch.
Similarly, before Pujara pulled off a spectacular onehanded catch at slips to dismiss Karunaratne in the first innings, he was guilty of not even reacting to a chance that went through the slip cordon. Among the close-in catchers, only Ajinkya Rahane and keeper Wriddhiman Saha came out with flying colours in this game. “That is certainly an area that we want to keep improving in,” said India captain Virat Kohli.
“On a pitch like that where it is getting slower, sometimes you end up standing ahead because you want to pick catches from the front. And then when one big shot is played and the ball is bowled quick, you suddenly look like you are not in position.
“Maybe, we will have to figure out a certain distance we just stay in, no matter whether the ball falls in front of us (or not). Specialists are always nice. KL and Pujara are our close-in specialists. Pujara does gully for spinners as well but then he takes on short-leg and KL hasn’t done as much of that practice as Pujara does. So it becomes tricky,” said Kohli, whose close catching too is not top notch.
“I try to chip in, but when I drop catches it looks bad. We will have to figure out who stands in those positions consistently and keep those guys there for longer periods. That is the solution going forward.”