Burns adds to Australia’s fielding woes

Australia’s fielding in the Test series against India has begun to border on the comical after they missed another golden opportunity to press home the advantage in the final match of the summer at the SCG.

Australia took the vital wicket of Virat Kohli for 147 early on day four of the fourth Test and soon followed up with the scalp of Wriddhiman Saha for 35, before the home side fell back into bad habits.

Shortly before lunch, Joe Burns grassed the simplest of bat-pad chances off Nathan Lyon, clutching at the Kookaburra as it fell to earth when Bhuvneshwar Kumar was yet to score.

“That was a lot harder to drop than to catch,” Shane Warne said on the Channel Nine.

Burns’ cock-up was Australia’s 16th missed chance in this best-of-four series and means they have now given up an extra 630 runs, despite the fact they have reclaimed the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

The Australian No.6 cut a lone figure as he brooded over the costly drop, and it came after a near-farcical day in the field for the home side on day three at the SCG on Thursday.

Captain Steve Smith fumed over the interference of Spidercam as he dropped KL Rahul (110) on 46. That followed a slack effort in the field from substitute Pat Cummins, when he blew a run-out chance of Rahul when he was 41.

Benny Hill’s slapstick music could have been the soundtrack as Rahul stumbled and fell mid-pitch after being refused a quick single by Kohli.

Rahul dropped his bat and slowly stumbled his way back to his crease with turtle-like speed as Cummins remained oblivious, lethargically fielding the ball and gently lobbing it back to Brad Haddin at the opposite end to the one Rahul was running.

To add to Australia’s misery, Smith then spilt Kohli off the bowling of Mitchell Starc at second slip when the India captain was 59.

Australian coach Darren Lehmann labelled fielding as “shoddy at best” after the final day of the drawn third Test at the MCG, after his team had spilt a number of take-able chances, blowing their chances of victory in the process.

Lehmann followed that up with further criticism after day three at the SCG of another “disappointing” effort, pointing out Australia were lacking confidence as they attempted to take their catches.

Lehmann was spot on.

Nowhere was a lack of confidence more apparent in Burns’s clumsy effort at snaring Kumar.

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