KKR have topped the IPL’s catching charts since 2022, with their fielding standards setting them apart from the rest. Sarah Waris looks at the data, the methods behind their success, and why catching remains one of T20 cricket’s clearest match-winning skills.
"If we drop catches, we cannot defend"
265 should have been enough.
For most of the evening at the Arun Jaitley Stadium a couple of weeks ago, there were several stories unfolding during Delhi Capitals’ clash against Punjab Kings. KL Rahul had made an unbeaten 152, the sort of innings that usually sits alone as the highlight of a match. Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh then began Punjab’s reply with the kind of violence that’s increasingly becoming commonplace in the league. There was a concussion substitution after Lungi Ngidi’s unfortunate fall, and the replacement controversy that followed. And, by the end, there was history too as Punjab completed the highest successful chase in T20 cricket.
Yet, from inside the ground, another story was just as difficult to ignore: as the ball kept going up, Delhi Capitals kept finding ways of letting it fall.
Delhi dropped six catches in the chase, three of which proved especially costly. Prabhsimran was put down on 13 and went on to make 76 off 26. Two more came off Shreyas Iyer, both put down by Karun Nair in the space of three balls. Shreyas was 28 off 20 at the time of the first reprieve, and finished unbeaten on 71 off 36. In a chase that demanded near-perfection, Delhi were nowhere close.
Following the defeat, Venugopal Rao, Delhi’s director of cricket, did not sugarcoat things. “I do not think we will win these kinds of matches when you are dropping catches at a crucial time. We need to take the chances of players like Prabhsimran and Shreyas. If we drop catches, we cannot defend.”
It was a brutal admission, but it is not an isolated failing. According to CricViz, Delhi have the worst catching efficiency in the IPL since 2022, converting only 72.6 percent of their chances till May 6, 2026. Their boundary catching is even more concerning: 70.8 percent across that period, again the lowest among all teams. This season, the decline has been sharper. Delhi’s overall catching efficiency is 64.5 percent, while their boundary catching has fallen to 51.7 percent. In simple terms, almost every second chance near the ropes has gone down.
At the other end of the same table are Kolkata Knight Riders.
The numbers that show Kolkata Knight Riders are the IPL's best catching side
Since 2022, no side has caught better than KKR, whose overall catching efficiency is 83.2 percent. Their strength is not confined to one area. They are second-best in the ring, behind only Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and the best boundary-catching side in the league at 82.2 percent. This season, they have lifted those numbers further: 88.6 percent overall, 88.8 percent in the ring and 88 percent on the boundary.
IPL squads change every year, so team numbers over four seasons need some caution. Even so, KKR’s consistency across roles and seasons points to more than a one-off good fielding group.
T20s no longer allow fielding teams to be good in only one part of the ground. The ring has become a place of interception and pressure; the boundary, a place of judgement, balance and risk. KKR’s numbers suggest a side sustaining standards across both.
The clearest image of that came against Lucknow Super Giants in the Super Over. Aiden Markram miscued Sunil Narine towards long-on, where Rovman Powell ran across, completed the catch, before realising his momentum was carrying him over the rope. In the same movement, he flicked the ball back infield, where Rinku Singh, running around from long-off, completed the dismissal. The scorebook recorded Rinku’s name, but the catch was as much about Powell’s awareness as Rinku’s alertness.
Rinku’s role here was fitting. Since 2022, he has taken 42 catches and dropped only two, giving him a catching efficiency of 95.4 percent. Among players with at least 20 chances in this period, no one has a better overall record. All 42 of those catches have come on the boundary. In 2026 alone, he has taken nine catches, dropping just one.
KKR’s fielding, though, is not just Rinku. Anukul Roy, often used as a fielding substitute, has caught at 90.9 percent overall since 2022 and 87.5 percent on the boundary. Angkrish Raghuvanshi, across a smaller sample, is at 90 percent overall. Even players not instinctively associated with elite fielding have held up reasonably well: Narine has caught at 80.9 percent overall and 82.3 percent in the ring, while Varun Chakaravarthy is at 85.7 percent on the boundary. The data shows not one outstanding catcher, but standards held across seasons.
KKR's preparation: Match scenarios and the 12-second rule
Dishant Yagnik, KKR’s fielding coach, is not surprised by the gains in numbers. Speaking to Wisden.com, he breaks down fielding as a skill built less on natural talent and more on small, repeatable improvements.
“First of all, for fielding, you don’t need talent,” he says. “The only thing you need is hard work. A little bit of micro adjustment of technique with volume will definitely help a fielder.”
Yagnik does not train every fielder the same way. Some are naturally quicker, some are safer close in, and some need more work when turning and running towards the boundary. His point is that improvement comes when the work is tied to a player’s match role.
“I always work with them in a specific position condition,” he says. That explains the difference between old-fashioned catching practice and modern fielding work. A running boundary catch is not the same as a skier; a relay catch demands different instincts from a flat catch in the ring. New-age T20 training has had to mirror those differences.
“From day one in KKR, when I introduced all the fielding sessions to everyone, my baseline was we have to do the match pace, match pressure, match angle, match trajectory,” Yagnik says. “So, whether we are fielding in a circle or at the boundary rope, whichever scene comes into the match, we have to do that.”
The league-wide numbers explain why that specifically matters. In 2023, the IPL boundary-catching efficiency was 83.9 percent. Since then, it has fallen sharply, to 75.5 percent in 2025 and 74.9 percent this season. Ring catching, by contrast, has recovered to 82.5 percent in 2026, its best since 2022. The split suggests that the outfield is where the game is stretching fielders the most.
Yagnik keeps returning to balance. “On the boundary rope, the awareness is most important with the proper balance,” he says. “While running towards the boundary rope, you have to pull back the ball into the ground. The most important thing is balance.”
That is why KKR’s boundary numbers stand out. In the last four seasons, KKR have caught 82.2 percent of their boundary chances, ahead of all other teams. This season, the gap between KKR and Delhi at the boundary is more than 36 percent.
The next aspect is anticipation, a skill that matters everywhere but becomes especially unforgiving on the boundary. On flatter hits towards the rope, fielders do not always have the luxury of reacting after the ball has been hit; the first movement often has to come from reading the batter’s shape, the bowler’s plan and the likely scoring area.
“For a fielder, anticipation is the most important thing because then you are one step ahead of the batsman,” Yagnik says.
To sharpen that, he introduced what he calls the “12-second rule” in the KKR setup. “The rule is that if you stand at long-off or long-on, you have to close your eyes for 12 seconds,” Yagnik says. “Then you have to visualise from the batsman towards you what the different paces and angles the ball can come at. That improves your anticipation. So as soon as the ball flies from the bat, you are almost there.”
It is a small detail, but it says a lot about where fielding coaching has moved. The best fielders are no longer simply reacting. They are narrowing the possibilities before the ball comes to them. In a format where one dropped chance can decide a game, even that fraction matters.
The best and worst of individual catching
The player data reflects how specialised fielding has become. Some of the best catchers since 2022 are expected names: Rinku at 95.4 percent, Shimron Hetmyer at 92.3, Nicholas Pooran and Suryakumar Yadav both above 91. Shubman Gill has been especially sharp in the ring, converting 95 percent of his chances.
At the other end, the data is more uncomfortable. Khaleel Ahmed has taken four catches and dropped 12 since 2022. Yuzvendra Chahal has dropped 13 against 10 catches. Shashank Singh, much in the news for his drops this season, has dropped seven and taken 18, with four of those drops coming this year alone (as well as a few more post May 6). Not every chance carries the same degree of difficulty, but across four seasons and more, repeated misses become harder to explain away.
That is why Delhi’s night against Punjab felt so stark. A dropped catch can disappear into the chaos of a T20 game. Six, in a chase of 266, becomes the game itself. ‘Catches win matches’ was a long-repeated cliché that night, only because it showed once again that it is true.
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