Virat takes no prisoners on the field: R Sridhar

Indian fielding has undergone a transformation over the last decade, off the field with regard to its significance and on it for execution. 
R Sridhar, Team India’s fielding coach since 2014, talks to Rutvick Mehta about factors behind this change, why fielding will be crucial in this World Cup and what makes Virat Kohli lead from the front when it comes to showing intensity on the field. Excerpts from a freewheeling chat:

Fielding is crucial in every tournament, but it will be more so in this World Cup, isn't it, considering the flat nature of the English tracks?

It will be as important as any primary skill. We saw 340s and 370s being chased down in the England-Pakistan series. If that is any indication to go by, then every run you save on the field, every catch you make or every momentum you change through a fielding effort is going to be vital for all teams.

In the past, you've employed different fielding drills depending on the country that the team plays in, like blindfold catching, using balls with different weights, etc. Have you planned anything specific for the World Cup in England?

Firstly, you don't prepare for a World Cup during the World Cup. We started preparing for the World Cup a good 22 months ago, straight after the 2017 Champions Trophy.

Secondly, we stand at a slight advantage because we were in England for about 90 days last year, playing a lot of white ball and red ball cricket. The drills and methods that we employed in England benefitted us. If you see the Lord's ODI, we fielded brilliantly, and then in the Test series, in my opinion, we out-fielded England throughout the series.

So, all the drills that we employed last time – like blindfold catching, using heavier balls for catching and throwing, one-handed catching, using the bowling machine, using lighter balls for the breeze, etc – all those things helped us. We will continue doing all these things based on the requirement of each individual.

In most previous World Cups, while India could match other teams in batting and bowling, the same couldn't be said about fielding. Do you think that's not the case now and that the Indian fielding unit is on par with the best in the world?

In the last (2015) World Cup, we outfielded South Africa in Melbourne. Our three pacers – (Md) Shami took a brilliant catch off Hashim Amla, Mohit Sharma ran out AB de Villiers and Umesh Yadav ran out David Miller. All the teams stood up and took notice that this Indian team doesn't have fielders to hide. Earlier, they could target a fielder and say, 'run two'. They can't do that anymore.

It is also thanks to the intent and aggression of Virat Kohli, him walking the talk and laying so much emphasis on fitness. (Head coach) Ravi Shastri treats fielding as if it's the most important skill of the three. Ravi starts a team meeting talking about fielding. He always says that the 11 best fielders will take the park. So, this coming from Ravi and Virat, it makes my job easy. What also makes it easier is that the players are willing to put in the extra effort.

Having said that, this World Cup has seven players who were part of the last World Cup, which means they're four years older than back then. So, I wouldn't expect them to set the field on fire. But what works in our advantage is that we have guys who understand angles well to cut twos into ones, will stay calm in tight situations, will be alert at the right times. These seven guys are safe as houses when it comes to catching. They may not be sprinting around the park, but these things give them the cutting edge.

To add to these, we have a (Ravindra) Jadeja, a Vijay Shankar, a Hardik (Pandya), and of course, Virat who, I would say, is fitter than what he was in 2015. Someone stop him, please! (laughs)

So, these four will be adding that spark on the field. And then you have the Shikhars (Shikhar Dhawan), the Rohits (Rohit Sharma) and the Bhuvis (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) who understand angles very well. Kuldeep (Yadav) is much improved while (Yuzvendra) Chahal and (Jasprit) Bumrah are between average and good. And the man behind the stumps (MS Dhoni) is a magician. He keeps pulling these rabbits out of the hat every time he is behind the stumps.

You spoke of Kohli. He keeps harping upon setting the intensity and showing intent on the field. How do you ensure that the intensity is always at its peak?

Look, you want to define intensity, just watch Virat Kohli. But here lies the catch: everyone is not Virat Kohli. But it also doesn't mean that they're not giving their 100 per cent. So, that is the challenge for me as a coach, to ensure that each guy takes care of his own intensity. If each player does that, the team's intensity will stay high. If one guy drops, he will drag the entire team down.

As a fielding coach, that is what I watch on the ground during the match. I sit with my laptop, taking notes of every ball – who is fielding where, how many runs has he saved, etc. So, if anyone is just dropping his intensity, it is easy for me to observe. Immediately, we send a communication.

And when will the intensity drop? When you're not in the game. We have methods to keep everyone in the game at all times. For example, we tell a player to start thinking like a captain for the next five overs. Or if somebody hasn't fielded a ball for a while, we bring him back into the action by either changing his position or throwing the ball to him. So, we monitor all these things and at the end of the match, I have all the stats to show the players.

(India fielding coach R Sridhar says captain Virat Kohli has set the benchmark when it comes to athleticism and fitness —Reuters)

But how do you gauge that intensity – is it about having a good body language on the field, attacking the ball at all times or showing match awareness by backing up?

The answer is in your question: it's the body language, alertness and game awareness. Everyone is quick when the ball is coming towards them but I'm watching them when the ball is not on them. If the ball is going on the off side, I'm looking at the leg side. What is the square-leg fielder doing: is he coming in 20 yards to save that overthrow or not? That is intensity. I see to it that the intensity doesn't drop. It can happen to all teams at some point.

One man who seems immune to it is Kohli, who can pull off something special at any position on the field. He leads from the front in creating that intensity, isn't it? Does that all come from the amount of effort he puts in even in training or is it just a result of his natural trait?

Kohli doesn't know what is 99 per cent. You're talking about matches, he does the same in practice. Let me give you a few instances.

In 2016, Yuvraj Singh came back to the team, it was in Adelaide before the first T20I between India and Australia. Yuvraj finished his batting and came out. I'm in the middle of Adelaide Oval, and I'm knocking catches to Kohli. And Kohli is going left, right, diving around. Yuvraj is standing there, so I tell him, 'Yuvi, you want to join?' And he was like, 'let him finish, I can't match his intensity!' And who said this? Yuvraj Singh, who is one of the pioneers of the Indian fielding revolution.

Another time in Brisbane, Virat was having a session, and he caught till he bled. I'm not kidding, I mean every word of it. He only stopped after there was blood dripping down from his elbow to his palm. I said 'Virat, enough now'. That session scared me. He was just diving, throwing, running, catching. It was a day I'll never forget. That is the passion he has got. And I'm not going to change it, nobody should change it.

And that's in all formats. The last Test against Sri Lanka in New Delhi (in December 2017) was heading towards a dull draw on the fifth day. Kohli was supposedly getting married after a week. Now, mandatory overs start in the match. (Ravichandran) Ashwin is bowling, and (Dinesh) Chandimal knocks a ball down to deep midwicket. Captain is standing at short midwicket. He runs behind that ball, picks it up with one hand and throws it to Ashwin off balance before rolling down to the other side. I mean, the match is dead, the series is coming to a close, and he is getting married in a week!

Now, cut to England. August 2018, Birmingham. (Jonny) Bairstow clips one to midwicket off Ashwin, and Joe Root and Bairstow think they can run two. Kohli does the same thing he did in Delhi, throws it directly to the stumps and Root is run out. It makes it 216/4 and then they are 287 all out. Gamechanger.

The point is, whether it's the first Test of a marquee series in England or a dead rubber against Sri Lanka in India, his energy is the same. That is Virat Kohli for you.

But, like you said, not everyone can be Kohli. So do you have to put in different amount of work towards, let's say, a Kuldeep or a Bumrah to keep improving them on the field?

Kuldeep is a very hardworking boy. I've known him since he was 13, and he has come a long way. His fielding has also really improved, and that's because of the extra effort that he puts in. He doesn't run away from fielding. On the contrary, every day he pushes me for it.

Same is the case with Bumrah, but the biggest challenge with him is workload management. I can't push Bumrah like I push Kuldeep or anybody else. I monitor the number of throws he does and stuff like that, and it's a very thin rope for me to walk with him.

But his attitude is great, he is a fighter. Recently, he came in Vizag for the first T20I against Australia after a long break. He dropped two-three catches in practice. So, he finished his bowling and batting, came back and told me, 'Sridhar sir, 25 high balls now. I disappointed myself and you in the first session'. I said, 'There's a match tomorrow and it's very humid'. But he was adamant.

Let me give you a stat: in 2017, Bumrah got the highest number of run outs for India, eight of them. Nobody knows it. I can tell you how many runs Bumrah has saved for India since he made his debut.

You seem to be a coach who is always on the laptop and jotting down stats. So, assuming in a match, a particular player has dropped a few catches and has fielded poorly, how do you deal with that?

First of all, I go to the player and give him words of encouragement. I allow the emotions to settle, maybe give it 24 hours. Then, go back, watch the videos and see whether he is a serial offender and has been dropping similar catches previously or is just a one-off; whether it's a technical fault or a concentration issue. Then, in the next practice session, when the head is clear, I have a word with him and try and get some clarity on what he felt as to why it happened. And then I tell him what I feel, we discuss and that's it. The challenge is to get the answer from him. Because, when it comes from him, the solution is more permanent. That is my style of coaching and that is how I handle things.

From the time you took over the role in 2014 to now, what has been the single biggest improvement in the fielding of this Indian team?

It's like asking a mother which is your favourite child (smiles). But if you ask me, it is the ground fielding. See, no matter how good you are, every fielder will drop catches. Show me one fielder who hasn't dropped a catch, and I will show you God. Even Jonty Rhodes, Gary Sobers, Kapil Dev have dropped catches. But to me the biggest thing is ground fielding, the athleticism on the field.

One of our KPIs (Key Performance Indicator) says, 'Nothing goes past me without my best effort'. Every time I go and ask a fielder after a game, 'did you give your best on that ball or not?' You don't have to answer me, answer yourself. If you've not given your best, you have let the team down. Simple.

Also, there's been an overall improvement in fitness. Obviously there again, Virat's attitude to fitness helps the team. So, they're able to give their best time and again. What can happen if you're not fit is – one ball you give your best, and then if another ball comes to you immediately and because your fitness can let you down, you don't give your best. In this team, if any fielder has to chase six out of six balls in an over, he is ready to do it.

So, what have been the factors behind this paradigm shift in Indian cricket, where fielding is put on the same pedestal as batting or bowling as a skill set. The chief selector talks about picking one player over another due to the three-dimensional skills, which also involves fielding…

In 2010, I joined NCA as a fielding coach, which was something new at that time. What that did was allow the mindset of all the elite cricketers coming to NCA to change. Fielding is basically about the mindset. Like Ravi changes the mindset of whoever comes into the Indian team regarding the importance of fielding. And, Virat takes no prisoners on the field.

From 2008, there are three factors that have been influential in changing the dynamics of Indian fielding over the last decade. One: BCCI starting IPL. Top-class fielding is now available for all youngsters to watch. That's been the biggest factor. Two: BCCI has ensured that every ground across all states is grassed well, where any aspiring cricketer can go dive around. Three, and the most important: Appropriate coach education. I have done more than 100 seminars for BCCI across the country about the importance of fielding, and how it is not something you can do when you're not batting and bowling, it should be something you should do before you bat and bowl. Through these coaching seminars, correct and advanced training methods have been taught and circulated down to every single Level I and II coach in the country. Thus, most youngsters in the country have a decent technique of fielding.

All this I'm talking about a decade ago. So it's all bearing the fruit now. It has been a culmination of all these factors. The fact that now India is a superpower in fielding makes my very happy.

But there will be some chinks in the fielding armour, right? What are the areas of improvement you're looking at specifically for the World Cup?

For me, the biggest challenge in this World Cup is to reduce the gap between your good days and bad days. Every team is bound to have a bad day. But on a good day, if you're executing it at 99 per cent, on a bad day, it should be 97 per cent and not 81 per cent. So, what I'm looking to do in this World Cup is – individually as a fielder and as a unit – we should reduce the difference between our good and bad days in everything we do on the field. To do that, we'll keep working on different drills, innovative methods, and individual tailor-made programmes. Fielding is all about giving attention to small detail, and we will do that. It may be boring to repeat the same thing day in and day out, but that is what makes you a champion. Look ugly in practice, look handsome in the match.

Let's talk a bit about the magician you mentioned before: MS Dhoni. One's reflexes are bound to get slower with age but Dhoni continues to defy that behind the stumps?

I'll just put it down to two things: extremely good basics of wicketkeeping, and game awareness of the next level. That brain has got so much data inside him, and it's got the fastest processor in the world. Even Steve Jobs couldn't make a faster processor, I guess (laughs).

But his technique is not what a classical wicketkeeper would have, and yet that doesn't seem to matter even now…

That's because it has been situationally drilled in him. Because his basics are so strong, he can improvise it the way he wants it.

How is he in training? Is he open to new ideas or suggestions?

Look, to be very honest, I've learnt more from him than what I have told him. Obviously, we talk about wicketkeeping and bounce ideas off each other. If he wants to do his drills, I'm always there for him. But otherwise, man, c'mon, we're all mere mortals in front of him.

Sridhar's Coaching Journey

• First joined National Cricket Academy (NCA) camp in Bengaluru in 2008
• Joined as fielding coach of NCA in 2010
• Was India Under-19 fielding coach from 2011-2014, which included the U-19 World Cup-winning team of 2012
• Was roped in by IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab as fielding coach from 2014 to 2017
• Took over as fielding coach role of Indian team in 2014