A team can gain success only if skilled players are placed at accurate fielding positions.
A Tactical Guide To Cricket Fielding Positions
A Tactical Guide To Cricket Fielding Positions: Important Strategies Revealed
Fielders are often hailed as the rescuers of the bowling side as they save runs in every match. Most often people only consider that batting and bowling are the only two important aspects of cricket. Do you know that fielding is the most underrated skill that many people aren’t even ready to talk about?
Basically, in a cricket match, the fielding side consists of 11 members on the field, which includes a bowler, a wicketkeeper, and 9 fielders.
A team can gain success only if skilled players are placed at accurate fielding positions. Based on the match’s situation, a batter’s style, and a bowler’s plan of attack, a team’s captain makes essential changes for every ball or over to improve the fielding arrangement.
Although the fielding position remains the same, different teams might adapt unique strategies based on the game’s format, pitch conditions, and the opponent team’s strengths and weaknesses. Especially, in limited-overs cricket, a maximum of 2 fielders can be placed outside the 30-yards circle during the powerplay overs and 5 fielders in the non-powerplay overs.
In this guide, you will find out different fielding positions along with the strategies that can help you win many games.
Best Fielding Positions in Cricket You Need to Know
If you’re a beginner or seasoned cricketer, you need to understand the importance of each zone to determine the best fielding positions:
1. Wicketkeeping:
A wicketkeeper’s position is one of the most important fielding positions on the field, standing behind the batter and stumps. Most of the time, a wicketkeeper assists the captain in making game-changing decisions like the DRS (Decision Review System). A wicketkeeper has the advantage of concluding a batter’s innings through catch-out, run-out, and stump-out dismissals.
2. Slips:
A slip fielder is positioned at the left or right side of the wicketkeeper and behind the batter. This is one of the most thrilling fielding positions in cricket, which includes first slip, second slip, and so on. Especially, slip fielding requires alertness and faster reflexes to make brilliant catches. When a batter fails to hit the ball with perfect timing, it strikes the edge of the bat and reaches into the hands of the slip fielders.
3. Gulley:
A fielder placed between the point and slip, known as the gulley position, offers additional protection between these two points. Any batter playing late cuts or shots using wrist power might find it challenging to play against the gulley fielder.
4. Mid Off and Mid On:
The distance between the two fielding positions namely the Mid On and Mid Off is located on the opposite side of the pitch within the 30-yard circle. Fielders placed in this position are charged with the responsibility to stop the shot struck straight down the ground by the opponent team batter.
At times, you could become the star performer of the day by succeeding in stopping the straight drives in the powerplay overs with a dive.
5. Long Off and Long On:
The long-off and long-on are the deeper versions of the mid-off and mid-on, where the two fielders stand near the boundary ropes. Mainly, fielders in this position need to cut off the runs and get prepared to take spectacular catches, when a batter tries to play a lofted shot. Most often, batters have preferred the long-on and off-zone to play risky shots.
6. Fine Leg and Third Man:
The fielding positions at third man and fine leg are usually placed behind the batters and near the boundary ropes. In other words, fielders are placed at the off-side (third man) and leg-side (fine leg) of the batter at the backside to prevent runs scored through boundaries from edged or flicked shots. During powerplay overs, the fielders can be brought inside the 30-yard circle.
7. Point:
Typically, batters play cut shots and square cuts on the offside to score runs instantly toward the boundaries, and it is the responsibility of the fielder at the point position to save huge runs for the team. A deep point is located at the boundaries whereas a deep point fielder moved towards the third man is called the backward point position.
8. Cover Position:
Typically, the cover position protects the offside, and it is the responsibility of the fielder to prevent the classic shots like cover drive going towards the boundary. The deep cover at the boundaries attracts batters to play lofted shots, cover drives, inside outs, and several other shots in offside.
9. Square Leg:
Batsman prefers executing pull shots, sweep, and hook shots on the square leg position on the leg side. A fielder’s responsibility in this zone is to prevent the batter from playing all these shots. ‘
The deep square leg is a more challenging position to field than the square leg. Whereas the backward square leg is the modified version of the backward point on the leg side and according to the fielding strategies, the zone is shifted towards the fine leg side.
10. Closer Fielding Position:
Usually, numerous fielders are placed closer to pressurize the batsman at the striker’s end in test cricket. At times, a batter mistimes a shot while attempting to play in a defensive mode. Also, these fielding positions are riskier since there are chances for fielders to get injured.
