5 dangers for India in the Border-Gavaskar Series

#3 Close-in catching

The Australians caught well in the first Test which made a big difference

While Steve Smith scored a breathtaking century on a tough pitch in the third innings for Australia to virtually seal the match, it was India who gift-wrapped the innings for him. He was dropped four times, twice by Murali Vijay and twice by Abhinav Mukund.

Apart from one of those chances to Mukund at mid-on, these chances were sitters that were expected to be taken at the international level, but this is not a new problem. India has been poor with their catches all season with England batsmen regularly getting reprieves from close-in catchers not long ago. It is hard to see why the habit has crept in and how it could be done away with.

Nevertheless, India cannot afford to keep dropping batsmen of the class of David Warner, Steve Smith, Shaun Marsh and Peter Handscomb if they are to come back strongly from the defeat.