Given how much of a talking point India’s catching was at Adelaide Oval, it would have been a big problem if they had not held on to any early chance that came their way in the second Test that started at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday.

After Rishabh Pant took a straightforward catch to dismiss Joe Burns, the second chance that was created fell to Ravindra Jadeja. Normally, it would have been a fairly regulation catch for a fielder of Jadeja’s quality as Matthew Wade went down the track and skied a length ball.

But debutant Shubman Gill seemed to want to make Jadeja work for it as he too went for the catch from short midwicket while the latter called for it from mid-on.

Luckily for India, Jadeja held on to the chance despite a collision, showing great balance and at the same time, making sure there were no bigger injury worries from the incident.

It was the first wicket of the morning for Ashwin Ravichandran and meant that Australia lost their openers early.

Australian captain Tim Paine won the toss and elected to bat in the second Test.

The visitors made four changes to the team that was beaten by eight wickets in the opening Test at Adelaide, where they were skittled for 36 in their second innings.

Opener Prithvi Shaw was dropped with Shubman Gill replacing him to make his debut, while Mohammad Siraj also earns a first cap in place of injured pace spearhead Mohammed Shami.

Rishabh Pant takes over from Wriddhiman Saha as wicketkeeper while experienced allrounder Ravindra Jadeja is back from injury to strengthen their bowling attack.

With AFP inputs