Best 'bad fielders' XI

[Line and Length]

Colin Cowdrey a strange choice, and I guarantee you've never seen Milburn field. I think you're judging only on girth.

Agree with both points. Cowdrey would have to be in the slips ahead of those named as slippers. Milburn was quite solid in the field despite his size.

 

[Silver Silva]

Colin Cowdrey a strange choice, and I guarantee you've never seen Milburn field. I think you're judging only on girth.

Somebody had to make an xi

 

[OverratedSanity]

Swear I've seen it in the last year. Sticks in my memory because of how much it clashed with my own observations of his "fielding"

He showed signs of big improvement in the England series, maybe that's why people might have mentioned it. It was actually kind of shocking that apart from being gun with the ball, he graduated from being utterly useless with the bat and in the field to somewhat competent at both. He threw himself around a lot and didn't fumble any (if at all).

 

[howitzer]

I've seen a few people actually praise Kuldeep in the field, which is wild because I was sitting right behind him as he was fielding for a full innings a few years back and I'm pretty sure he let through about 15-20 extra runs through sheer inattentiveness alone. Constantly in the wrong position, slow to react to the ball, fumbled etc etc. Visibly drove Kohli spare that day.

Inattentiveness is curable though and I feel like Kuldeep has worked on that a lot (and batting too), realising that secondary disciplines will be crucial to him getting in the side going forward.

 

[Spark]

He showed signs of big improvement in the England series, maybe that's why people might have mentioned it. It was actually kind of shocking that apart from being gun with the ball, he graduated from being utterly useless with the bat and in the field to somewhat competent at both. He threw himself around a lot and didn't fumble any (if at all).

I wonder if it was made clear to him that his continued selection was made contingent on it.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I wonder if it was made clear to him that his continued selection was made contingent on it.

Has to be, for the batting at least. Plus in that series, all our other bowlers almost without exception looked bad in the field (even Jadeja because he was limited by his hamstring injury) so Kuldeep actually not being bad for once stuck out even more.

 

[honestbharani]

I've seen a few people actually praise Kuldeep in the field, which is wild because I was sitting right behind him as he was fielding for a full innings a few years back and I'm pretty sure he let through about 15-20 extra runs through sheer inattentiveness alone. Constantly in the wrong position, slow to react to the ball, fumbled etc etc. Visibly drove Kohli spare that day.

Yeah but he has actually improved his fitness and fielding many levels now. It is a bit like Sidhu all those years ago.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

1.Colin Milburn
2.Dean Elgar (Slip Fielder)
3.Hashim Amla (Slip Fielder)
4.Colin Cowdrey
5.Inzamam Ul Haq
6.Arjuna Ranatunga (C)
7.Kamran Akmal (WK)
8.Vernon Philander
9.Ravichandran Ashwin
10.Shoaib Akthar
11.Courtney Walsh

Mooo. He should be fielding in the silly-cow-corner region. Only place we can hide him.

 

[_00_deathscar]

I've seen a few people actually praise Kuldeep in the field, which is wild because I was sitting right behind him as he was fielding for a full innings a few years back and I'm pretty sure he let through about 15-20 extra runs through sheer inattentiveness alone. Constantly in the wrong position, slow to react to the ball, fumbled etc etc. Visibly drove Kohli spare that day.

He’s improved massively, visibly. Moves around quicker now and also puts in proper effort

 

[_00_deathscar]

Now look what you did…you made me praise Kuldeep. I hate you

 

[kyear2]

1.Colin Milburn
2.Dean Elgar (Slip Fielder)
3.Hashim Amla (Slip Fielder)
4.Colin Cowdrey
5.Inzamam Ul Haq
6.Arjuna Ranatunga (C)
7.Kamran Akmal (WK)
8.Vernon Philander
9.Ravichandran Ashwin
10.Shoaib Akthar
11.Courtney Walsh

Chanderpaul (slip)
Gayle (slip / everywhere)

 

[SteveNZ]

Sodhi is an absolute carthorse in the field.

I think part of his issues are that he genuinely doesn't want the ball to come to him. Yes, he's a carthorse, but it certainly doesn't help when you hope it goes anywhere but to you. He seems to drop more catches in bigger moments & against better teams, which says to me he can field OK when he isn't worried about the repercussions.

Mark Richardson was another who was a poor fielder...but man, he worked hard on it. I watched him get a working over from someone (John Bracewell, maybe) after a day's play v Worcestershire on the 04 tour. They were there for about an hour, a lot of bat pad stuff but also ground fielding and high catching, and I bet Rigor asked to do that

 

[Victor Ian]

Isn't Pietersen ****?

 

[thierry henry]

If Daryl Mitchell is persisted with in the slips and keeps batting well he's only going to rise up the ranks here

 

[Bolo.]

If we are counting ODIs, Imran Tahir was probably the worst fielder I can ever remember hitting the park for RSA, and in the top few bowlers.

 

[Chin Music]

BTW I'm English and we've had lots of contenders for this team - no question...

I remember at one point in the late 80s, England had a test match team that had several blokes, including Gower, the truly awful Bill Athey and one or two others who could only roll the ball in underarm because they had damaged shoulders. Gower was apparently a pretty good fielder in his younger days.

 

[wpdavid]

I remember Gatt taking a great catch in the Headingley 81 test - was it a little floater off Ray Bright? 9th wicket down if I remember rightly...

Without checking, I think it was Lillee, who mis-timed a drive to mid on and Gatting dived forwards to take the catch inches from the ground. And it was a vital catch as Lillee looked like taking Australia over the line after the proper batting had collapsed.

 

[wpdavid]

I remember at one point in the late 80s, England had a test match team that had several blokes, including Gower, the truly awful Bill Athey and one or two others who could only roll the ball in underarm because they had damaged shoulders. Gower was apparently a pretty good fielder in his younger days.

He certainly was. For a while we had Gower and Randall patrolling each side of the square to great effect.

 

[Chin Music]

Without checking, I think it was Lillee, who mis-timed a drive to mid on and Gatting dived forwards to take the catch inches from the ground. And it was a vital catch as Lillee looked like taking Australia over the line after the proper batting had collapsed.

I recall hearing about a dreadful drop by Gatt. Here's one I found.
S24 destinations 16x9 30s (youtube.com)

 

[wpdavid]

I recall hearing about a dreadful drop by Gatt. Here's one I found.
S24 destinations 16x9 30s (youtube.com)

That really was the tour from hell, wasn't it.

I vaguely remember another occasion when Gatting initially caught one that was almost as easy but it slipped out of his grasp and the umpire ruled that he didn't have the ball under control. Possibly the Lord's test in 1985 when Aus chased down a small total?