Even as COVID-19 pandemic continues to firm its grip and keeps India's leading international cricketers confined to their four walls, fielding coach R Sridhar has been regularly talking to them and ensuring they are in good head space. 

Sridhar, in an interview with TOI, informed how players have been made to follow a pre-designed fitness programme and what are the drills he will employ to slowly get them back on track with regards to match fitness once the lockdown is over. 

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"I have been talking to them regularly for the last few weeks and ensuring that they get their fitness programmes," he said. "We need to get a date from the government of India or the BCCI and only then can we begin our work. Till then, we will ensure that the players are in good shape mentally and physically."

"As far as catching is concerned, once we are back I will begin by giving them some tennis ball catching because they wouldn’t have practised for a long time (12-14 weeks)."

"All of sudden, I don’t want their hands to get injuries. I will slowly make them catch a semi-hard ball which is lighter than a cricket ball," he added. 

"Once they get used to it for a few days, we will graduate to the cricket ball. When it comes to throwing and fielding drills, we will gradually increase the workload because a sudden spike can lead to injuries."

Even during this phase, players are following certain fielding drills depending on the space that is available to them. 

"Yes, some players may be locked inside an apartment and some may be in a farmhouse. Based on the space they have and the equipment they possess, we have given them the drills," informed Sridhar. 

The ICC has issued a few format-specific guidelines on the number of training days that players must go through before they can safely re-manage the workload at the highest level. 

Sridhar reckons it would take "3-4 weeks" for players to be ready to do the fielding part. 

"As far as the fielding is concerned, it will take a minimum of 3-4 weeks to be match-ready," he said. "For bowlers, it will be more than that. The workloads for players will have to be raised gradually."

India's fielding before this lockdown was a major cause of concern, something Sridhar is wary of. 

"When we started, we wanted to have 11 top fielders and be one of the best fielding sides in the world. Down the road, we achieved that till the 2019 World Cup as we were probably the best fielding team."

"In the last 6-8 months we dropped a little bit for various reasons but we will once again improve. The goal is to reduce the number of bad days and increase the number of good days in all formats."

Sridhar also gave away names who he thinks have been the most improved fielders in the Indian team. 

"Let’s start from the top. Virat Kohli was a great outfielder but he is a much-improved slip fielder now," he said. "Virat has worked hard on his slip catching skills. Rohit is another player who has improved his slip fielding skills and is very dependable in that region. Yuzvendra Chahal has improved a lot as he puts his heart and soul into it."

"Jasprit Bumrah and Kedar Jadhav are other players who have improved by leaps and bounds from what they were when they first came into the side."

(Inputs from TOI)