The slip fielders were conspicuous by their absence long before the shine on the ball had begun to fade. Instead, there was a short cover-point, a leg-slip, a short cover and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was standing up to Praveen Kumar. It was an innovative field placement as the quality of the Indian fielding was the real story of Saturday afternoon.

Virender Sehwag hasn’t been able to bowl since a shoulder injury in May, but the Indian opener made a sprawling effort across the Kotla turf to stop two extra runs. After the effort, Suresh Raina came sprinting to congratulate Sehwag, and Dhoni clapped in appreciation from behind the stumps.

There were other events all through the day that must have come as a pleasant surprise to the thinktank. Raina hit the stumps directly time and again, Ishant Sharma tumbled over to stop an on-drive inside the circle, and Yuvraj’s troublesome knee was forgotten in a valiant attempt at point. The throws on Saturday were flat and hard from the outfield, and there were no fumbles in the infield — all this in the first series after the fielding coach, Robin Singh, was sacked.

India’s fielding standards, interestingly, have always been independent of the conditions or the coach. In Sehwag, Tendulkar, Harbhajan and Ishant, they have a set of ‘safe’ fielders who form the core. It’s the inclusion of better or worse fielders to this mix that dictates India’s standards in a particular series. Add to it the sharpness of Raina, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, and their fielding goes up a few notches. Bring in Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, Amit Mishra, Ashish Nehra and Praveen Kumar, and there are question marks all around.

... contd.