Indian team has improved a lot in terms of direct-hit percentage, says fielding coach T Dilip

Litton Das Run Out. (Photo Source: Disney+Hotstar)

While the Indian team has been crtiticized for their poor fielding efforts many times, latesly India’s fielding coach, T Dilip, has a different take on it. He quoted the moment when Litton Das was on a roll, smashing 60 off 27 balls, chasing a target of 151 runs in 16 overs.

KL Rahul’s direct hit from the deep got the vital breakthrough of Litton Das, with India winning by 5 runs, during the T20 World Cup in Australia in 2022. He feels that the fielding standards of the team have improved a lot with regard to getting direct hits.

“There are certain areas where we have certainly improved over a period of time. If you look at the number of direct-hit percentage in the World Cup and that one direct hit from KL Rahul changed the course of the match,” Dilip was quoted as saying by News18 cricket.

“That’s something we are looking at as a group and if you look at it’s overall ratio, even though there are no run outs, the number of times we have hit the stumps has improved a bit. That’s one area we will keep improving,” Dilip added.

The Indian fielding coach also talked about KL Rahul’s place in the playing XI and fine-tuning his wicketkeeping skills to make him more valuable for the team.

“We all know that KL Rahul is a wonderful player. He has a proven record. Even in ODIs, in the middle-order, he has proven enough as a batter. As a wicketkeeper, he gets a lot of balance into the team because he gives an advantage.”

“Since he is not someone who has picked the gloves just now he has been doing that since a younger age he adds a lot of things. Not that difficult to work on his wicket-keeping, apart from refining a few aspects,” Dilip said.

Dilip feels that Hardik is well-equipped to captain Team India

Dilip feels that Hardik Pandya, who will be the stand-in skipper for the first ODI against Australia, adds more value as a leader. The fielding coach also added that Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja’s intensity in fielding will inspire the youngsters in the Indian team to do well in the future.

“He is the captain now officially. But he has been in our leadership group for all these matches and he’s proven in T20s what he can bring on table as a captain. Even if Rohit is the captain, he is part of our leadership group, he adds a lot of value to the team, not only you, we all are looking forward to him. He is well-equipped to do it,” concluded.