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Australian skipper Steve Smith has a serious decision to make to retain Matt Renshaw in the slips.
The opening batsman dropped two chances on the second day of the fourth and final Test against India at Dharamsala.
The first came off the bowling of Pat Cummins and was a hot, but very costly, miss that Renshaw never looked like catching.
Lokesh Rahul was only ten in the 11th over, with India 1-25.
» Australia vs India 4th Test scorecard
Cummins eventually got his man for 60 in the 40th over for India to be 2-108, making the Renshaw miss very costly over 29 overs and 83 runs.
Renshaw’s second drop was also off the hapless Cummins, who toiled so manfully at pace all day.
Indian keeper Wriddhiman Saha made a century last Test at Ranchi, but with him unbeaten going into day three, the Australians won’t know how expensive Renshaw’s regulation miss will be until play resumes with Saha on nine and India 6-248 chasing Australia’s 300.
Steve Smith is right up there among Australia’s top slippers since World War II.
Bobby Simpson, Mark Taylor, Mark Waugh and Smith top the list with two Chappells, and Shane Warne not far behind.
But Renshaw isn’t anywhere near that class and it’s too dangerous, as yesterday proved, to leave him there.
Peter Handscomb is a far safer bet as a part-time keeper, leaving Shaun Marsh to take over at bat-pad.
Yesterday should have been Pat Cummins’ day, but the scoreboard shows offie Nathan Lyon grabbed that honour.
His 4-67 off 28 probing overs has him share the second most career wickets for an off-spinner against India with West Indian Lance Gibbs on 63 wickets, but well short of Muttiah Muralitharan’s 105.
Lyon made sure India didn’t take a big first innings lead that could overcome having to bat last on a wicket that’s starting to play some tricks.
Two interesting facts have emerged over the first two days.
Day one saw the Australians tumble from 1-141 to be all put 300 with five Australians dismissed in single figures – Renshaw (1), Marsh (4), Handscomb (8), Glenn Maxwell (8), and Steve O’Keefe (8), while Karun Nair (5) was the only Indian with single digits.
The second fact was the four-prong Australian attack of two pacemen, Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, with two spinners, Lyon and O’Keefe, bowled 435 dot balls between them in the day. That translates to the equivalent of 72 maidens in the day’s 91 overs.
Accurate and economical.
As a result, Steve Smith is in the driver’s seat as the holder of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy from the last Australian tour. All he has to do is draw this series to retain the Trophy.
But that won’t be Smith’s thinking. He’ll want to win the series, a rare feat in India, to make the retention comprehensive.
So Australia must dismiss India today for around 300, and bat for a day-and-a-half, setting India over 400 to win.
That means Renshaw, Marsh, Handscomb, Maxwell, and O’Keefe must get among the runs because they can’t expect Smith to keep firing all the time.
Already he’s scored 43 per cent of the Australian’s runs in this series, so it’s time for a team effort.
And that would be the perfect ending to a tremendous series, proving Test cricket is still alive and well.