India vs England 2016: 5 causes of concern for Team India after the first test

#1 Team India undone by poor fielding

The main culprits of the dropped chances for Team India (Courtesy: Bcci.tv)

There is no doubt that this Indian team is one of the best fielding units in the world currently. With some excellent fielders like Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja and captain Virat Kohli to name a few, they can be absolutely electric on the field.

But the fielding department proved to be their undoing in the first test at Rajkot, with a series of dropped catches coming back to haunt them, as they managed to drag the match to a draw.

There were three dropped catches in the first 30 minutes of play on day one, as Ajinkya Rahane grassed a straightforward chance at gully off Alastair Cook’s outside edge in the first over of the match itself, followed by Virat Kohli letting captain Cook off the hook at second slip, after which Murali Vijay was generous enough to give debutant Haseeb Hameed a second chance after dropping a sitter at first slip.

All the good work done by pacers Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav was reaping no rewards.

All-rounder Ben Stokes was the luckiest of them all, as he was afforded two lives by wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha, who dropped easy chances to remove Stokes twice in the space of two overs, both off the bowling of Umesh Yadav. The Durham all-rounder made the most of the lives given to him, as he smashed a century, helping England amass a huge first innings score.

Rahane also dropped a sharp chance off Mishra at leg gully handing Stuart Broad, who was playing his 100^th test match, a life.

It was a poor outing for the No.1 Test team in the field, and one might be left wondering as to what the outcome of the match would have been, had the fielders held on to the chances.