India has a concerning statistic to their name in ODIs ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 at home from October 5 onwards, as they have the second-lowest catch efficiency among the top 10 ranked teams since the 2019 edition of World Cup in England. During the start of India’s crucial Asia Cup clash against Nepal, the Indian team dropped some easy catches. Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer, among India’s best and most agile fielders, and wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan, dropped these catches.
India’s catch efficiency of 75.1 per cent places them at number nine, just above the bottom-placed Afghanistan, which has a catching efficiency of 71.2 per cent.
England sits at the top with a catch efficiency of 82.8 per cent, followed by the current number one ODI side Pakistan (81.6 per cent) and New Zealand (80.9 per cent) at second and third positions.
Sri Lanka is at the fourth spot with 78.8 per cent catch efficiency, followed by Australia at the fifth spot with 78.5 per cent. At number six is West Indies with 77.9 per cent, which did not even qualify for the ODI World Cup this year.
Bangladesh, at seventh with 75.8 per cent and South Africa at eighth with 75.1 per cent are also placed above Men in Blue.
While India has some of the most fearsome batters/bowlers like skipper Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja etc, they will have to better their fielding in order to have a better chance at World Cup, since saving those extra 20-30 runs will keep them at advantage.
Talking about the match, Team India qualified for the Super 4 stage of the Asia Cup 2023 with a 10-wicket victory (DLS method) over Nepal on Monday.
After bundling out Nepal for 230, Team India got a revised target of 145 runs to win in 23 overs after a rain delay.
Skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill smashed 74* and 67* runs respectively and India chased down the target in just 20.1 overs.
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