Australia captain Tim Paine made up for dropping Shubman Gill by grabbing a ‘screamer’ to send Cheteshwar Pujara back to the hut in the ongoing Melbourne Test.

Pujara and Gill added 25 to the team’s overnight score of 36 before the youngster fell to Pat Cummins, who looked especially ominous on the second morning, forcing multiple edges and near chances before finally getting his man. Gill was dismissed five short of a half-century in his maiden Test knock.

Pujara followed the debutant soon after, falling in a similar fashion as the Adelaide Test – edging a Cummins in-swinger as Paine flew to his right to complete an excellent catch despite being wrong-footed as the batsman edged it.

“Oh, a screamer, wouldn’t have carried to first slip, that’s excellent catching,” Shane Warne, commentating on the match for Fox Cricket, said of Paine’s catch.

What makes the catch even more important is the fact that Paine had dropped Gill in just the second over of the day. The Australia captain wasn’t able to hold on to a similar catch, albeit to his left, as Josh Hazlewood had forced an inside edge from Gill.

With Cummins removing both Gill and Pujara in consecutive overs, Australia have clawed their way back into the game with two new batsmen after their disappointing first innings total of 195.

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Cheteshwar PujaraShubman GillTim PaineAustralia v IndiaInternational CricketSeries Editorial