Former Team India Fielding Coach R Sridhar has played a very important role in improving Team India’s fielding. R Sridhar took over as India’s fielding coach in 2014 and worked under Duncan Fletcher, Anil Kumble and Ravi Shastri before stepping down with the latter after the 2021 T20 World Cup.
However, it was not easy for him to become the coach of an international giant like India even though he worked with the Indian U19 team as assistant coach, Kings XI Punjab as fielding coach and as head coach of domestic teams.
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In his autobiography, ‘Coaching Beyond – My Days with the Indian Cricket Team’, Sridhar revealed how he made changes to his coaching methods and the role that senior spinner Ravichandran Ashwin played in bringing those changes.
“Being with Ashwin, I was struck by one of our early conversations in my first week with the national team. Non-confrontationally, he asked me, ‘If you don’t mind, Sridhar sir, why should I listen to you and follow the fielding drills you suggest? Why should I do what you are asking me to? From 2011 to 2014, we had Trevor Penney as the fielding coach. Now you have come in, you will be there for let’s say two to three years. You will say something; you will go a way. Then a new fielding coach will come. If I am honest, in the next three years, I have a lot at stake. I should be convinced that what you are saying is going to work for me. It should help my game, otherwise why should I listen to you?”
Sridhar said that the conversation helped him realise that he needed to make changes to the way he has worked thus far when working with the Indian team.