Stats: India's biggest problem - slip fielding

It has been a bull of a year for Indian test cricket so far. Losing just one out of the 11 test matches played in the current calendar year, the men in blue (dressed in white) can hardly seem to take a step in the wrong direction.

With a passionate and spirited captain leading from the front, pacers coming to the party, and a solid bench strength, it is easy to assume, on the face of it, that Indian test cricket is in able hands.

There is one issue, however, that plagues the team and cannot be looked over - slip catching.

Numbers don't lie

Indian slip catching - the numbers

Take a good look at that sugary number pie above. Tells a story, doesn't it?

The Indians drop 3 catches out of every 10 that come their way.

Catches win matches

Remember what your first cricket coach told you while teaching you to make a cup with your palms to catch the ball softly?

What are the Indians doing wrong?

The pacers are contributing to the wickets tally, bowling long and promising spells, and creating chances. However, they aren't being helped a whole lot by the lads dropping those chances.

We have seen how costly a no-ball can be. Do we need to learn the cost of dropped catches the hard way?

The Indian batsmen and the spin twins have often done the fire-fighting, and new records and individual pieces of brilliance have pushed this issue to the back seat. South Africa however, will be a whole new ball game.

The unsympathetic South African bowling line up is sure to ruffle a few Indian feathers and whether the spin twins will be as effective as they are in the subcontinent is something only time will tell. In such conditions, can the Indians afford to drop catches? Definitely not!

A possible solution

Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja - This is the list of men India has tried at the slip cordon in the past few test series. Have they found a winning combination yet? Evidently, not.

In the test series against Sri Lanka, Ajinkya Rahane seemed rather comfortable, tucked away cosily at gully. If there is one player in this Indian side who has made the slip position his own, it is Rahane.

If Kohli's men are to stand any chance of upping their slip catching game in South Africa, they have to go with a set combination in mind. Mine would be Rahane, Kohli, and Vijay in the first, second, and third slip respectively.

Being a big fan of the blues, it hurts to see a team functioning at it's best, dropping regulation catches at least twice every innings of a test match. These men have earned their current position at the top of the test rankings. They belong there. However, if they want to stay there for any longer than just two series, they have to roll up their sleeves and get catching!