The hosts’ poor fielding shocked everyone on Tuesday night in India’s four-wicket loss to Australia in the first T20 match played at the PCA Stadium in Mohali. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel gave up 101 runs from their eight overs. At the same time, the team was also disappointed with the performance on the field. All-around starter Cameron Green, along with captain Aaron Finch, played a stormy inning of 61 runs on 30 balls. Green got a life saver for 42 when Axar Patel dropped his catch in the middle of the deep wicket.
In the following over, KL Rahul dropped Steve Smith’s catch from distance, but the costliest chance came in the 18th over when Harshal Patel missed the dismissal of Matthew Wade. At the time, Wade was at 23 and remained unbeaten at 45 on just 21 balls to lead Australia to victory with four wickets to spare.
India’s poor fielding show in Mohali disappointed former head coach Ravi Shastri. “What disappointed me in Tuesday’s game was the level of fielding. I think when it comes to fielding, you have to beat the big teams in the big competitions, which is the most important thing,” he said.
In the second T20 match in Nagpur on Friday, Shastri felt that the current Indian team would have to improve their field to consistently beat top teams in big events like the T20 World Cup which starts in Australia next month.