Important improvement seen already this season in close fielding

Although we have been very successful in the last few years, one of the things that perhaps needed significant improvement was the close fielding/catching in the team. There were important occasions in recent seasons when dropped catches especially in the slips cost us somewhat. Have other people also noticed that our close fielding and catching has been excellent so far this year and I am sure it has helped the wonderful contribution that Steel and Lawrence have made with the ball. Foakes has been imperious behind the stumps (has he missed a single chance yet?), the slip catching of Sibley & Overton in particular has been top notch and then in this latest game against Kent, Jamie Smith's two sharp catches were great.
This afternoon I have just watched Smith's catches on Facebook and did anyone else get that "deja vu" feeling for Parkinson's dismissal? Back in 2018 when we won our first championship for many years and of course we had Morne Morkel bowling brilliantly, it was the home fixture against Lancashire where we won an exciting game by just 7 runs I think and the last Lancashire wicket to fall was "Parkinson caught Jacks, bowled Morkel". The catch was well taken by Jacks at short leg off a firmly timed hit by Parkinson. Yesterday he did exactly the same thing to Roach's ball and this time it was Smith pouching the catch in exactly the same position!! Looks like a short leg when Parkinson bats is a must.

Good spot!

Ollie Pope gave a lesson in slip fielding today v Hampshire, 8 catches in the match

Not too sure about the improvement, I think Ollie dropped a couple of others as well, while Overton and Sibley have also dropped catches. We don't have bad slips, just that none of them are Graham Roope standard (not many are). We do have to keep rotating the fielders at slip as players become available or unavailable. I think Jacks could be our best slip, but he drops the odd dolly then takes a worldie.

Tom Latham was the best slip catcher we had last year. The standard has been very good but not flawless so far this year. The remarkable thing is how many catches have gone there...a testiment to our bowling.

Will Jacks wouldn't get in the team.