Watching @ShreyasIyer15 perform that acrobatic fielding to assist in taking the “team catch “ made me appreciate how fielding has evolved since my retirement. For a long time, I felt like the “father of fielding”, but watching these modern athletes with their timing and awareness on the boundary line, makes me feel like the “grandfather of fielding”! I spent 99% of my career fielding in the inner circle, and when I started working as a fielding coach, there was no focus on the modern day “hotspots” on the boundaries. It was only when I started working with @mipaltan and saw Kieron Pollard, and then Glenn Maxwell, performing these incredible “airborne saves” on the boundaries that we started focusing on not only taking catches off balls that were already beyond the rope, but even saving the ball from going for a sixer, and forcing the batters to run only 1 or 2. With impact players transforming the way that batters can continuously attack the bowling, even with the loss of 4-5 wickets, bowlers need to be backed up by their fielders, and Shreyas’ spectacular“catch and release” was a perfect example of that. But let’s face it; when your head coach is @RickyPonting, one of the greatest fielders in the game, it should not come as a great surprise to see such incredible feats in the field!
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