Former India wicketkeeper-batter Parthiv Patel has called India’s fielding the ‘most alarming’ concern following the Men in Blue’s 2-0 T20I series defeat to Ireland and the recent surrender to England, pointing to a worrying pattern that extends across all levels of the sport.
Parthiv said India’s shortcomings against Ireland extended beyond the final scoreline, with missed opportunities in the field proving decisive in both matches. The former stumper stressed that catching has become a recurring problem that demands immediate attention from the selectors and coaching staff.
“The result was a bit surprising and shocking. You can’t expect to beat Ireland after playing poor cricket. Over the last two to two-and-a-half years, the most alarming aspect of Indian cricket has been fielding, across the men’s team, the women’s team and even junior cricket. Even in the Ireland series, had those two or three catches been taken in the first game, they wouldn’t have scored over 180. The same thing happened in the second game. This is definitely an area India needs to address because they’re dropping catches at crucial moments,” Parthiv said on JioStar.
Parthiv Patel urges India to develop T20 specialist bowlers
Beyond fielding concerns, the former India stumper questioned the team’s approach to building a bowling attack suited specifically for T20 cricket. He argued India should develop bowlers tailored to the shortest format rather than relying on established all-format names who may not always be available.
“Secondly, just as we have T20 specialists in batting, why don’t we look for the same in bowling? We always think, ‘Bumrah will come back and do the job.’ Then we keep going back to the likes of Prasidh Krishna. We also have bowlers like Prince Yadav and Mohsin Khan, so we need to start looking at T20 specialist bowlers as well,” Parthiv added.
Tilak Varma must score runs to balance batting line-up
Parthiv also expressed concern about India’s batting composition, suggesting the current left-heavy top order could become a long-term problem. He stressed that Tilak Varma, the side’s vice-captain, needs to find form to address this imbalance.
“I’m just hoping we don’t see another vice-captain get dropped. The kind of batting line-up we have can’t work in the long term. If six of your top seven batters are left-handers, that batting order won’t work. Changes have to be made somewhere. Now, who comes into the side and which right-hander gets backed, I don’t know. That’s why Tilak Varma needs to score runs,” Parthiv said.
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