NEW DELHI: India have stormed into the Asia Cup final unbeaten, winning all five of their matches - three in the group stage and two in the Super 4 so far. However, one major concern that persists is their fielding.
India may have outplayed Bangladesh by 41 runs in Wednesday's Super 4 clash, but their fielding remains a concern, with five catches dropped in the match - taking their tournament total to 12 missed chances, the highest by any team so far in the Asia Cup. This came after India dropped four catches against Pakistan on Sunday.
Among the eight teams in the tournament, India rank just behind Hong Kong-China with a catching efficiency of only 67.5%. Wednesday's game also featured one of the rarest occurrences in T20Is - a single batter being dropped four times in an innings, a feat previously achieved by Jason Roy, Mohammad Hafeez, Pathum Nissanka, and now Saif Hassan.
Hassan was dropped four times at crucial moments on scores of 40, 60, 65, and 69.
Dropped catches in Asia Cup 2025 (catch efficiency in brackets)
12 India (67.5%)
11 HK, China (52.1%)
8 Ban (74.1%)
6 SL (68.4%)
4 Afg (76.4%)
4 Oman (76.4%)
3 Pak (86.3%)
2 UAE (85.7%)
Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy acknowledged that the team needs to overcome its catching issues and added that the fielding coach was certainly unhappy with the effort.
"This team has been picked for a mission till the World Cup. We have to pick up our fielding and the fielding coach will have lots to say. Last match he didn't say much, but after today he'll have plenty to say," he said.
Varun noted that the fielding struggles are largely due to the "Ring of Fire" floodlights, but he acknowledged that making excuses at this level is completely unjustified.
"It comes into your eyesight sometimes and it's a bit of a disturbance. We have to get used to it. But at this level, you cannot make excuses. We have to take every catch," Varun added.
