Indian skipper Shubman Gill raised concerns regarding the team’s fielding after a five-wicket loss in the third ODI against the West Indies. India dropped as many as three catches in the final game of the series against the visitors while defending a target of 352.
Kuldeep Yadav, Virat Kohli and Gurnoor Brar all dropped catches in the last match. Kohli’s drop catch of Amir Jangoo was a costly miss as the left-hander went on to score 67 runs.
Meanwhile, West Indies captain Shai Hope went on to score a match-winning knock of 162 runs off just 143 balls to take his team over the line in the massive run-chase.
Shubman Gill said in the post-match press conference, “Decently pleased [with the progress]. But I think there are still some areas [of improvement] – I think our fielding could be much better. Overall, in the series, I think we dropped six or seven catches, which is not a good sign leading up to the World Cup. You want your fielding to be top-notch.”
The Indian captain also admitted they need to improve their death bowling as the bowlers could not execute their plans. India conceded 405 runs in the second game and then could not defend 351 runs on Saturday.
He concluded, “I feel sometimes we are not really clear whether we are attacking or we are defending, especially when we are bowling in the death overs. One-day[ers] is such a game, if the opposition is five or six down, you are never really sure what fields to take, whether we are going for the death too early or we are still, you know, bowling kind of like middle overs. I think these are some areas which definitely we need to be better at.”
India will next take on the West Indies in a five-match T20I series, starting Tuesday.
