New Delhi, July 11 (IANS) Former India wicketkeeper-batter Parthiv Patel has called India’s fielding the ‘most alarming’ concern following the Men in Blue’s 2-0 T20I series defeat to Ireland and the recent surrender to England, saying repeated lapses in catching have become a worrying trend across all levels of Indian cricket.

Reflecting on the disappointing result, Parthiv also urged the selectors to identify specialist T20 bowlers instead of relying on familiar names, while expressing hope that Tilak Varma rediscovers his form to bring greater balance to India’s batting line-up.

Parthiv said India’s shortcomings against Ireland extended beyond the final scoreline, pointing to missed opportunities in the field that proved decisive in both matches.

“The result was a bit surprising and shocking. You can’t expect to beat Ireland after playing poor cricket. Over the last two to two-and-a-half years, the most alarming aspect of Indian cricket has been fielding, across the men’s team, the women’s team and even junior cricket. Even in the Ireland series, had those two or three catches been taken in the first game, they wouldn’t have scored over 180. The same thing happened in the second game. This is definitely an area India needs to address because they’re dropping catches at crucial moments,” Parthiv told JioStar.

Beyond fielding, the former India stumper questioned the team’s approach towards building a bowling attack in the shortest format, arguing that India should begin grooming bowlers specifically suited to T20 cricket rather than depending on established all-format names.

“Secondly, just as we have T20 specialists in batting, why don’t we look for the same in bowling? We always think, ‘Bumrah will come back and do the job.’ Then we keep going back to the likes of Prasidh Krishna. We also have bowlers like Prince Yadav and Mohsin Khan, so we need to start looking at T20 specialist bowlers as well,” he stated.

Parthiv also turned his attention to India’s batting combination, suggesting that the current left-heavy top order could become a long-term concern. In that context, he stressed the importance of Tilak Varma returning to form with the bat.

“I’m just hoping we don’t see another vice-captain get dropped. The kind of batting line-up we have can’t work in the long term. If six of your top seven batters are left-handers, that batting order won’t work. Changes have to be made somewhere. Now, who comes into the side and which right-hander gets backed, I don’t know. That’s why Tilak Varma needs to score runs,” Parthiv added.

–IANS

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