IND vs ENG: India dropped 6 catches, this player alone dropped 3; Gill made many big blunders in captaincy

Three days of the first Test match being played between India and England on the Headingley cricket ground in Leeds were completed. Even though India had created a crucial 6-run lead in the first innings. But the team's poor fielding and the captaincy of Shubman Gill are questionable. Currently, India might have to pay for their lack of awareness in the second innings.

Indian fielders have dropped six catches so far in this Test match. Since 2019, this is the first time that the team has missed five or more chances in the first innings of a Test match. The worst fielding was by young player Yashasvi Jaiswal. He has dropped three catches in the slips alone. All three of these chances came off Jasprit Bumrah's balls.

The three batsmen whose catches Jaiswal dropped all went on to play big innings. The first chance came on the second day, when Jaiswal dropped Ben Duckett's catch. Duckett was then on 15 and was later dismissed for 62. After this, he dropped Ollie Pope's catch when he was on 60; Pope played an innings of 106 runs. On the third day, Harry Brook's catch was missed at 83, and he returned to the pavilion after scoring 99 runs. These three batsmen together added 109 extra runs, due to which England came close to India's score, and India's lead was limited to only 6 runs.

Apart from this, questions were also raised on the strategy of Shubman Gill, who is captaining the Test for the first time. There was a lack in the selection and use of bowlers. Especially, flaws were seen in the fielding arrangement. Yashasvi was repeatedly making mistakes in the slips, but Gill did not remove him from there. Sai Sudarshan is an excellent slip fielder, and Gill could have put him there in place of Yashasvi. Yashasvi mostly fielded in the gully on the Australia tour. In such a situation, putting him in the slips was a big mistake of the captain.

Apart from this, when England had lost 8 wickets, Gill delayed bringing Bumrah into the attack. Finally, when Bumrah came to bowl, he immediately dismissed Chris Woakes and Jose Tongue and wrapped up the English innings. But by then England had almost ended India's lead. At the same time, Gill gave only 6 overs to Shardul Thakur, whereas he could have got more chances considering his form. Apart from this, Shardul bowls better with the new ball, but he was brought to bowl in the 40th over.