Former Indian skipper, Ajit Wadekar, believes that slip fielding is one of the most important aspects in Test cricket and hopes that the likes of Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli will efficiently replace Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman in the slip cordon.
After India’s disastrous defeats at the hands of England and Australia, there was immense criticism on the senior players, which led to the retirement of Dravid and Laxman, who are considered to be among the greatest batsmen produced by the country.
On top of that, both were extremely safe catchers and very seldom did they let their team down behind the stumps. Standing at slips is one of the toughest jobs in the fielding as the ball travels at great speed and every team needs brilliant catchers to assist the bowlers.
Wadekar, who played for India between 1960s and 1970s, expressed that his team knew the importance of having safe hands in slips in the era of some great spinners. The former left-handed batsman said that no team can afford to drop batsmen of international standard, who make the opposition pay.
The 71-year-old former cricketer rates Dravid and Laxman very high. With 210 catches, Dravid holds the record of highest number of catches in the game’s history.
"Tiger Pataudi and I put a lot of emphasis on slip fielding. We had best spinning quartet— EAS Prasanna, BS Chandrashekar, Bishan Singh Bedi and Venkatraghavan. They needed support from slip fielders. If you happened to drop batsmen of the caliber of Gary Sobers and Geoff Boycott, you had it. That was carried forward by Rahul (Dravid) and VVS Laxman," said Wadekar.
The former Test captain is satisfied with the performance of Sehwag and Kohli in the first of the two-match Test series against New Zealand at Hyderabad and hopes that the duo will continue to deliver the goods in future.
"If you look back at the last Test in Hyderabad, Viru (Sehwag) along with Virat Kohli did extremely well. So, we seem to have found replacements for Rahul and Laxman in the batting order but also in the slips," he added.
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