The first came early in the day off the bowling of Shane Watson when Rohit Sharma edged a delivery towards the vacant third slip area.

However, Australian captain Steve Smith was on his toes and he dove to his right to take screamer of a catch close to the ground.

Then with India eight down substitute fielder Marnus Labuschagne took a blinding catch to dismiss tailender Varun Aaron off the bowling of Nathan Lyon.

Lyon's delivery turned and spun from outside off stump and clipped his bat and pad before looping into the air close to the pitch.

Labuschagne, who was stationed at short leg, threw himself forwards and clasped the ball in his right hand just centimetres before it hit the ground.

The catch is likely to thrust Labuschagne, who  made his Sheffield Shield debut for Queensland this season as an opening batsman, in to the limelight like a number of other sub-fielders at the Gabba in recent years.

Queensland's Chris Sabburg held a superb catch in the deep to dismiss England dangerman Kevin Pietersen while fellow Bulls players Ryan Broad and Peter Cantrell have also taken catches in the Gabba Test.

However, none of them had such a strange training drill as Labuschagne posted to his Instagram account in the lead up to the match. 

Labuschagne watches intently as a mate cuts a cob of corn on a kitchen bench and then when it splits off he dives forward to catch it just shy of the ground - in an eerie likeness to his catch for Australia today. 

Perhaps future generations of Australian cricketers might adopt a more corny training regime after watching this one.