Rahul Dravid

Birmingham: Team India captain Rahul Dravid said after his team’s defeat at Edgbaston that the side needs to lift its fielding standards by a few notches if they are to match England in the seven-match ODI series.

India once again put an embarrassing work on the field with plenty of misfields and overthrows to add to Rudra Pratap Singh’s dropped catch of Alastair Cook at long leg and Mahendra Singh Dhoni missing an easy stumping off Owais Shah.

And indeed, India’s pathetic work on the field were in sharp contrast to some outstanding work by the young England side that showcased some brilliant cricket.

“More than anything else England are out-fielding us at this stage,” said Dravid, in praise of his opposition before dwelling on his own plight.

“Your fielders can sometimes make your bowlers look better than they are and we are not doing that.

“We didn’t field as well as we can, that was a disappointing part of our game, and they (England) fielded beautifully,” he said.

“It makes a big difference in a game you lose by 40 or 50 runs. You give away 20 and they save 20, that’s the game. It’s an area we need to improve,” Dravid said.

Dravid also underlined his and Sourav Ganguly’s quick dismissals as one of the main reasons for his team failing to catch up with the England total.

“We knew one of us would have to go and try to make a big score,” said Dravid. “The critical stage of the game was losing those two quick wickets which, when you’ve gone in with six batsmen, we couldn’t afford.”

The Indian captain’s decision to send in Dinesh Karthik at No. 3 — when he could have come in himself or sent Yuvraj Singh or even Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has a fine record batting up the order — came in for a lot of criticism. But Dravid defended the decision by pointing how England’s decision to back Ian Bell was paying off.

“Look at Ian Bell, we are all talking about him but England have been patient with him and therein lies a lesson for everybody,” Dravid said.

England skipper Paul Collingwood has described his young side’s efforts as exceptional and attributed it to the fearless attitude of his inexperienced players at Edgbaston.

“We are getting scores of around 300 all the time and that shows we are improving,” said Collingwood.

“We have always said the best way to play one-day cricket is with a fearless attitude. It is getting filtered into our bloodstream, but it is still early doors,” he said.

Having said that, in fitness of things, the England captain exercised caution.

“There are only three games gone so we won’t get too carried away, but in many ways I was as satisfied with Monday’s performance as I was at the Rose Bowl. I know that was what I called near-perfect but today the efforts from all the lads were exceptional.”

Though England was missing out on the overwhelming presence of Andrew Flintoff and Dimitri Mascarenhas, they were aided by James Anderson and Chris Tremlett, who struck some telling blows that laid India low.

Collingwood singled out Tremlett for special praise, saying he was constantly improving.

“What you have seen at Edgbaston is that he’s got the character to bounce back. We had a lot of faith in him. He didn’t start off too well but came back and got those really important wickets at an important time. Things like that, and bowlers like that, can change a game.

“I think we saw in the Test series he has moved on leaps and bounds. He’s improving all the time. He’s a huge guy and he just needs to get that aggression going sometimes. He showed signs of that in this game.”

With the first-ever ICC World Twenty20 coming up, it wasn’t a surprise to see England playing safe by not including Flintoff.

“Obviously it was the decision made by the medical staff; they erred on the side of caution.