Even before the Indian women’s cricket team started their ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 campaign, it was understood, that while the batters and the bowlers will perform to the best of their ability, it would be their questionable fielding & catching, that will let them down. And that has been the case so far. Harmanpreet Kaur‘s team is not new to this ‘dropping too many catches’ criticism, but unfortunately, the improvement ceases to come.
Just a couple of days back, in the IND-W vs SA-W encounter at Old Trafford, in Manchester, a total of three catches were spilled in the match; all three by India. One was by pacer Nandni Sharma, while the other two came by the best fielder in the side — Radha Yadav. She went on to drop Marizanne Kapp twice — once in the 13th over, and then again in the 17th over, eventually scoring 81 from 45, to take South Africa to a win.
Biju George comes out in support of Radha Yadav
It is not like those were difficult chances for Radha, given her exceptional standards on the field, but she still managed to make a mess of them. The first came on the bowling of Shree Charani, where a mishit to long on from Kapp, nearly saw her return to the pavilion. But the fielder overran, and made an error.
The second one came on the bowling of Shafali Verma, and this time it was a sitter. Again, Kapp mishit one towards long on, and she could not pouch the simplest of catches. If one feels, there are the only ones dropped in the T20 World Cup 2026, then go back to the Pakistan match — Richa Ghosh and Arundhati Reddy were the culprits there. In the Netherlands match, Charani had one failed attempt to her name.
Former India women’s fielding coach Biju George, who has been associated with many IPL franchises in various capacities, told InsideSport in an exclusive interview, that Radha might have been injured, when she dropped those catches. “If you look at those dropped chances, Radha Yadav’s fingers are heavily bandaged. It does not look like your regular pre-match taping, but an injury taping.
“The question that needs to be asked is, ‘was Radha down with a hand injury’? And if so, why was she fielding in the hot spot? Ideally you want to have a tall fielder there; Smriti or Harman would have been better choices there,” he opined. He also went on to add, that even if the team wanted to use Radha, then her best position would have been, where she could have cut singles.
“If you want to use Radha as fielder in place of Yastika, you can ask her to go field at cover, point or mid-wicket, to cut those singles, and make the batters take the risk. I am totally against the idea of using Radha just as a fielder. She is a quality all-rounder… a finger spinner who can really bat well. Had Radha been there in the XI, she would have given you another 15 runs against SA. Those runs would have perhaps helped the team win. You’re not utilising Radha properly, but only as a fielder.”
…should be included in India playing XI
In fact, Biju George further vouched for her inclusion, since she can really uplift the team. Even though her batting hasn’t really flourished in the international circuit, but she does have a fifty in WPL, and the overall SR is 142, which can really be beneficial for the team.
“Mind you, she can give you those 2 overs. You know she is a WPL champion, very experienced player. Radha is probably is the only player to have figured in all WPL finals, whether for DC or RCB, all the finals. So she should be playing,” George said. This is perhaps only an indication from the veteran coach, that the Indian team is getting their playing XI wrong.
