India strike late

Jasprit Bumrah (centre) celebrates after dismissing Australia’s in-form batter Travis Head in Melbourne yesterday. Pic/AP; PTI

An electric start, an excellent fightback, an extraordinary debut, an unprecedented turnout. Day One of the Boxing Day Test lived up to its hype as Australia and India went toe to toe, both perhaps reasonably satisfied with their efforts.

Head goes without scoring

Rohit Sharma lost a toss he'd rather have won - the first toss India haven't won in four Tests this series - and must have feared the worst when Australia rode in the wake of the Sam Konstas show to pull away to 237 for two, midway through the final session. Then, like he has done so often in the past, Jasprit Bumrah returned them into the contest with the scalps of Travis Head, dismissed without scoring, and Mitchell Marsh in quick succession to throw a spanner in the Aussie works.

Steve Smith after scoring his 50 yesterday. Pic/Getty Images

By the time stumps were drawn on a hot, overcast day, the hosts had made their way to 311-6, a decent but by no means out-of-reach total, with former skipper Steve Smith and current captain Pat Cummins tasked with weathering the storm of the second new ball, which is only five overs old now.

Konstas is only 19, but showed no signs of nerves in front of 87,242 excited fans (the most for a day in an Australia-India Test in this country), setting about dismantling the Bumrah threat with gusto. Adopting a fearless approach that can only come to the very young or the very foolhardy, he treated the best bowler in the world with disdain, scooping and reverse-scooping him repeatedly. Bumrah's first spell was 6-2-38-0, unthinkable at the start of play.

Usman Khawaja was the ice to Konstas's fire during an 89-run alliance that set the tone for what was to follow. Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep both bowled very good spells without any luck - it's been the story of the series so far - and it was Ravindra Jadeja who provided the breakthrough, trapping Konstas in front for a dazzling 60 with a ball that shot through on pitching. By then, Konstas had not just tamed Bumrah, but also been dragged into physical contact with Virat Kohli.

Top-order shines

Like India, Australia too have been in the quest for top-order runs and on the best batting strip of the series to date - there was seam, but not outlandishly so, and there was bounce, but not disconcertingly so - their prayers were answered. Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne, chancily, put on another half-century stand for the second wicket when Bumrah forced the former to toe-end a pull to mid-wicket.

Labuschagne slowly found his rhythm in Smith's company, the two piling on the pressure whilst adding 83. Against the run of play, the former thrashed Washington Sundar straight to mid-off. Washington replaced Shubman Gill in the only change to the India XI that played in Brisbane, a selection that raised many eyebrows and confirmed that Rohit would move up the batting order, hopefully at some stage on Friday.

Labuschagne's wicket sparked a mini-collapse of three for nine with Bumrah, back for a fourth spell, now a threat with every ball. Head shouldered arms to one that kept coming back in and hit top of off, the struggling Marsh essayed an optimistic half-pull to be caught behind and when Deep finally tasted reward for perseverance by accounting for Alex Carey with the second new ball, India believed they were back in the contest. At least for now.

Brief scores
Australia 311-6 (M Labuschagne 72, S Smith 68', S Konstas 60, U Khawaja 57, A Carey 31; J Bumrah 3-75) v India