There is a virus spreading in the Indian Premier League. This is a kind of virus you do not catch, instead you drop it. Get it? No? Okay. We are talking about the catch-drop virus, which has taken over the Indian Premier League’s 2026 season. Every single match, big chances are going down, effectively changing the fate of the game.
The latest example of the virus spreading is Delhi Capitals’ match against Punjab Kings. Playing at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, the hosts raced to a total of 264 runs, one of the highest scores ever made in the history of the Indian Premier League.
DC vs PBKS, IPL 2026: HIGHLIGHTS | Scorecard
Delhi were aided by a crucial dropped chance of KL Rahul in the third over of the game. Shashank Singh, stationed at the leg-side boundary, failed to hold onto a straightforward chance, spilling the ball from his hands.
Rahul punished Punjab brutally, smashing 152 runs, the highest score by an Indian in the history of the tournament.
But once Shashank sneezed, sorry, spilt the catch, the virus spread. Delhi Capitals dropped as many as six catches on the field that same evening.
One of them came off Shreyas Iyer in the 15th over. Iyer, who has a sensational record of staying unbeaten in high-scoring chases, got a lifeline from Karun Nair at long-off and went on to guide his team to the highest-ever T20 chase in the history of the tournament.
Delhi vs Punjab was not the only instance. Between the 2 matches played April 25, a total of 17 catches went down. In Rajasthan vs Hyderabad’s game later in the same evening, numerous chances went down in Jaipur, which saw SRH chase down 229 runs with effortless ease.
It needs to be pointed, that the culprits in question – Karun Nair, Shashank Singh, or, for that matter, Lungi Ngidi, who took a bad tumble while attempting a catch, are not poor fielders. In fact, fielding is one of their most defining features, and they are regularly placed in high-activity regions, also called the hotspots.
But somehow, they continue to drop catches.
STEADY DECLINE IN CATCHING EFFICIENCY SINCE 2020
At this point, it should be pointed out that this catch-drop virus is not new. Since 2020, catching efficiency has steadily gone down in the Indian Premier League.
In 2020, 85 out of every 100 catches were being taken in the IPL. That number had dropped to 76 out of 100 midway through IPL 2025. This year, it is likely to dip even lower.
This means the problem is not just a few bad nights under lights. It has turned into a pattern.
In an era where players are faster, fitter, and more athletic than ever before, it feels strange that something as basic as catching has become such a recurring issue. But perhaps that is exactly the point. Catching is not glamorous. It is repetition, sharpness, awareness, and concentration. And when fatigue enters the body, that is often the first thing to disappear.
WHY ARE SO MANY CATCHES GOING DOWN?
Funnily enough, Yuzvendra Chahal, one of the repeat patients of this catch-drop virus, said earlier in the season that no one walks into a game thinking they will drop catches. It happens, and they are simply a part of the game.
Now watch this attempted catch from Chahal from Punjab’s match against Mumbai earlier this season.
Yes, Yuzi bhai, no one wants to drop them. But surely shutting your eyes before the ball arrives does not help.
Shashank Singh, one of Punjab’s best fielders, has dropped four of his last five chances. The one chance he did not drop, he did not even attempt. He stood at the boundary and watched the ball sail over the rope, despite it not being too far from his reach.
IS IT LACK OF GAME AWARENESS?
India Today spoke to former IPL player Sreevats Goswami about the issue. Goswami, a sensational wicketkeeper in his playing days, was largely immune to the virus himself. Reacting to the number of dropped catches, the former Bengal star believed it came down to one thing: game awareness.
Those players were simply not switched on when they were on the field.
While that might explain fielding efforts from players like Yuzvendra Chahal, whom teams often hide in easier positions, it does not explain this particular dropped chance from Washington Sundar.
Fielding at short mid-wicket, Washington dropped an absolute dolly off Virat Kohli.
The result? You guessed it.
Kohli guided RCB’s chase of 206 runs with a fluent 81-run knock, helping the side chase down the target in just 18.5 overs.
Sometimes, awareness is the answer. Sometimes, it is simply fatigue.
UNFORGIVING SCHEDULE
Since the Covid-19 years, cricketers have been trapped in an unimaginable calendar. At least one ICC event every single year, multiple franchise tournaments across the world, and a punishing bilateral schedule have forced players into a constant state of frenzy.
In 2024, players barely had a week’s break between the IPL and the T20 World Cup. In 2026, the story was much the same. The World Cup finished on March 8, and players reported to IPL camps just a week and a half later.
Too much cricket is real. Fans feel it all the time. It has probably caught up to the players as well.
The IPL schedule itself is unforgiving. Delhi Capitals lost a heartbreaking game on Saturday. They will have to brush off the physical and mental fatigue from that defeat and prepare for another game on Monday.
In this kind of scheduling nightmare, teams often ask their first XI players to prioritise recovery. That means pool sessions, massages, muscle recovery, and simply switching off mentally. It also means fewer fielding drills and fewer catching sessions.
And that eventually reflects in the game.
One of India’s best fielders, Mohammed Kaif, said there are no two ways about it. If players do not do the drills, their fielding skills will not improve. The bigger question, however, is when exactly they are supposed to find the time.
“Fielding is like a rushed meal, it is like breakfast. Constant travelling over the period of a month tires the players out. They use the breaks to take massages, to recover. This means that you are reducing your fielding load in training over time, and you focus on your specialist job, batting or bowling. You will see in every single IPL that more and more catches go down as the tournament progresses,” Kaif said on his YouTube channel.
This year especially, the heatwaves across the country have not helped. In Delhi, the sun was so blazingly bright that you could barely track the ball if it went high into the air. The heat drained players physically, forcing terrible bouts of fatigue, dehydration, and cramps.
While dropping a catch is no excuse, it would be unfair to solely blame the players without paying attention to the external factors.
Yes, execution is to blame. But so is the calendar, the heat, and the punishing travel schedule.
The catch-drop virus, then, is not really a mystery. It is a symptom of a sport that rarely stops, of players who are constantly travelling, constantly recovering, and constantly preparing for the next game before the previous one has fully ended.
No one walks into a match wanting to drop a sitter. No one plans to become the next viral clip on social media. But in a tournament as relentless as the IPL, sometimes the easiest chances become the hardest ones to hold.
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