The Indian fielding in the ongoing series against Australia has been great in patches and woeful in some. In Adelaide, they dropped catches while in Melbourne and Sydney, they varied from excellent to good to decent. In the Brisbane Test, with Ajinkya Rahane's side plagued by injury issues, India needed some sort of motivation. Playing with two new debutants and missing star players like Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari, the odds are stacked against India in the deciding Test in Australia's fortress of the Gabba. Australia won the toss and chose to bat on a pitch that looked good for batting. The combined experience of the Indian pace attack was just five Tests old and it looked to be an uphill task.
However, India's spirit rose when Rohit Sharma produced some magical fielding in the very first over. Mohammed Siraj opened the bowling and he got a full delivery to curl back in and then hold its line. David Warner, who had not fully recovered from the groin injury, tentatively poked at the delivery and the edge flew low to the slips. It was dying on the first slip fielder and it was felt the ball would just drop short. However, Rohit Sharma, at second slip, dived low to his right and took a splendid catch with two hands as India got the big breakthrough to send back David Warner cheaply for 1.
Things became even better for India when Shardul Thakur struck with his first ball in Australia by removing Marcus Harris cheaply. However, since then, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne have steadied the ship and as they did in Sydney, they would be hoping to create a big total.
Injury woes for India
India made four changes to the line-up from the Sydney Test. Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Hanuma Vihari and Ravindra Jadeja were all laid low with injuries. Ashwin had a back problem, Bumrah an abdominal strain, Vihari a grade 2 hamstring tear while Jadeja had a dislocated thumb that required surgery. In their place, T Natarajan and Washington Sundar became the 300th and 301st player to play for India in Tests. Mayank Agarwal was called back while Shardul Thakur was playing his first Test in over two years.
Australia, on the other hand, would be hoping to reclaim the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time since 2014 and they would be hoping to keep their proud Gabba record intact, where they have not lost a Test since 1988.
