World Cup 2019: Dhawan will struggle while fielding and catching after comeback, says coach R Sridhar

India's fielding coach R Sridhar suspects that Dhawan will face some serious challenge when it comes to fielding and catching, after he recovers from his thumb injury

India's fielding coach R Sridhar suspects that injured opener Shikhar Dhawan will face some serious challenge when it comes to fielding and catching, after he recovers from his thumb injury. Sridhar feels that the senior opener’s injury needs to be assessed to ensure if he could stand in slip region. Dhawan was hit by a Pat Cummins delivery during his innings against Australia, ruling him out for at least next four World Cup games due to the thumb fracture. "Throwing won't be a problem, but definitely there will be impact while fielding and catching, especially (since) he's a slip fielder. If you know, he stands in the slips in the initial phase of the innings, that can be an issue. We'll test him out with lighter balls first and gradually move on to the cricket ball and see how it goes from there, but, yeah, that will be a challenge," Sridhar said. "Once we assess him, probably on 10th or 12th day, we'll have to look - it's his bottom hand (left) while batting. It's not his dominant hand because he's a (natural) right-hander," added Sridhar. The Indian squad is not considered among the best teams when it comes to direct throws, but the fielding coach would be pleased if the conversion rate is even 25 percent. "That's a very good observation. It is something which I have my eye on as well, and we practice a lot for that. I would say converting, whether it's a run-out or not, converting one in three or four throws is a good conversion rate, in my opinion. "Don't judge me on that opinion, but picking up one out of four, you're doing a good job as a direct-hit unit. But we failed to do that in the last game. We had over ten strikes, and we hit only once. In some days, we hit three out of five. "That is one area we work hard on in every session."