When we talk about cricket, the only topic that interests us are batting and bowling and we often ignore the significance of Fielding. They say ‘catches win matches’ and hence, the Fielding part in the game of cricket is as important as batting and bowling. India never had brilliant and exceptional fielders such as Jonty Rhodes, but if we look at our cricket history, we did have some great fielders on our side as well. One name that will come to mind of true cricket fans is Mohammad Kaif. In recent years, the Indian cricket team had some good fielders namely Manish Pandey, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, and so on. Yet two other players outstand others in Fielding and they are Jadeja and Hardik.
For years, Jadeja has been known for never to have dropped any catch irrespective of how difficult of a catch it was. He also has been a reason for a lot of batsmen getting run out and with the magical hand that he has, he has grabbed as many as 78 catches in all formats which may not seem to be more, but almost all of them were catches that many great players would have dropped. He is very quick to react and puts everything he has into getting himself near the ball.
His friendly rival allrounder, Hardik Pandya is not less either. He will always be recognized for taking a near impossible catch against Pakistan to dismiss Sharjeel Khan. Hardik has taken 52 catches in all formats and has made some impressive runouts with his brilliant fielding. He will still require a lot of great catches and runouts to match the level of Sir Jadeja. Watch how Jadeja became the world’s current best fielder.
