If India have a workable solution for the middle order, and the crucial middle overs, they are still looking for one in the field. India are catching reasonably well but for some reason, hardly ever hit the stumps. Hitting the stumps is a near perfect equivalent of taking a catch and yet, a misdirected throw hardly ever arouses the kind of feeling that a dropped catch does. I am convinced that if players hit the stumps with some consistency they will produce a very healthy one wicket per match and save a lot of runs by planting doubts in a batsman\'s mind.

Hitting the stumps is a function of some skill but even more, of commitment and in its pursuit you can tell how seriously a cricketer takes his fielding. And the news, for a lot of young kids using big bats and dreaming of centuries while shirking from fielding drills, is that it is far easier for an ordinary fielder to become an excellent one than it is for an ordinary batsman or bowler to become outstanding.

If India\'s fielders can take a daily vitamin pill, twenty five direct hits a day compulsorily, they will surprise themselves at key moments in the World Cup.