The buzz for the 16th edition of the Indian T20 League among fans is massive. In the first game, MS Dhoni led-Chennai is set to take on Hardik Pandya’s Gujarat on March 31. As the league is nearing teams have started giving the finishing touch to their squad to get a flying start in the season. The speculations over potential winners, top batters, and bowlers are going all around but no one is talking about the top fielders of the tournament. however, in a recent interview legendary cricketer of South Africa Jonty Rhodes has named his top three fielders of the season.
In a pre-season interview with a media outlet, Rhodes talked about the importance of a good fielding side in a tournament like the Indian T20 League. He also talked about his experience with Lucknow as a fielding coach. The South African legend also talked about the future of One Day cricket.
While talking with Indian Express Jonty Rhodes said, “We know fielding is very important and it is a matter of discipline to learn good techniques. One of them is the ability to move laterally and sideways as cricket is a very straight-line game Whether you are batting or bowling. everybody is moving in a straight line. To be a good fielder, you need agility to change directions Secondly, you need to have good anticipation which doesn’t mean faster reflexes good anticipation means you expect every bowl to come to you. Currently, Ravindra Jadeja is the greatest fielder in the world.”
“Indian T20 League led teams to talk about fielding” – Jonty Rhodes
Further speaking about the growth of fielding abilities in modern cricket Rhodes gave credit to Indian T20 League for the raise in fielding standards. Rhodes said, “It is T20 cricket specifically, not just limited overs Only when Indian T20 League began, people started focusing on fielding. Not every team had fielding coaches.”
“There was enough time in 50-over matches. You had 3-4 good fielders and 6-7 guys didn’t do great but once IPL started, we saw growth in fielding Since 2008, around 12-13 years have been amazing. Earlier, people spoke about fielding but there were only 3-4 good individuals but now, as a team, we have seen the growth of fielding go through the roof”, added Rhodes.
