Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and skipper Virat Kohli dropped easy catches in the slip cordon during the third Test and Cheteshwar Pujara, who is now being prepared for the specialist position, had to do a bit of firefighting for his colleagues in the post-match press conference.
Pujara put his hand first up and admitted that slip catching indeed has been a problem.
He added, "Overall, the Indian team has improved as fielding unit, but slip fielding is something we are still looking to improve," the Saurashtra 'Run Machine' said when asked about the missed chances.
When asked if the reason for the misses had been identified, Pujara said he didn't have a clue.
Also Read
"All players standing in the slips are taking 50 to 100 catches. So we are trying to improve ourselves and eventually results will come," a hopeful Pujari said.
Ajinkya Rahane, who normally fields at slip for the spinners, was stationed at gully for the pacers. So why has Rahane not been placed at the conventional slip position?
"He is set there so we can't keep on changing fielders. When he's at gully, he knows the angles and he has an idea of where to stay, when he starts fielding at gully."
Pujara said that discussions are on regarding who all would be fielding at the slip cordon in South Africa.
"We are having a chat about it and we will assign a few players throughout the away series. We will prepare a few players who will be standing at the slips. We will discuss when we reach South Africa but we are already talking about that," he said.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content