It was looking even better just fifteen minutes before the break but Australia then suffered a double-blow. 

 The openers had put together a stand of 82 when paceman Umesh Yadav came into the attack for the first time and, with his second ball, had David Warner, on 38, playing well outside the off-stump with the ball taking an inside edge and cannoning into the stumps.

 Moments later, just as Steve Smith had come onto the field, Matt Renshaw, on 37, having spoken to Smith and the umpires, signalled to the dressing room and ran off the field.  Shaun Marsh came on to replace him with speculation that Renshaw was suffering from an upset stomach.

Both generally played with soft hands, allowing the ball to come on to them.  Renshaw also used his reach to smother the spin while Warner was watchful and, generally, played the ball late.  Only on a couple of occasions did they try and take on the Indian attack with Renshaw hitting Ravi Jadeja for a six shortly before he had to leave the field.

David Warner had a slice of luck when, on 20, he was bowled around his legs by Jayant Yadav.  Remarkably, the off-spinner had bowled a no-ball, over-stepping by a large margin.

 Matt Renshaw played and missed at a couple of deliveries early in his innings, something that is almost customary for the tall left-hander.  He survived a review for a caught behind off Ravi Ashwin when he’d made 12 but umpire Nigel Llong’s decision that the ball had missed the edge was upheld.

Steve Smith will have been delighted to have won the toss especially after calling incorrectly in all three matches in the recent series in Sri Lanka where Australia lost all of the Tests.

Whoever won the toss was always going to bat on a Pune pitch that has been a talking point before the Test had got underway.  It didn’t appear to be a typical pitch for the ground with both captains having noted how dry it appeared to be especially under the surface.

Mitchell Marsh, who had scored 75 in Australia’s warm-up game in Mumbai against India A, regained his place in the side alongside Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.  Just as they had in the win in their last Test against Bangladesh in Hyderabad, India selected both Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav.

With the current form of this Indian side, winning the toss is just the first hurdle.  Alastair Cook was fortunate enough to win the toss at the start of four of England’s five Tests.  In three of those, his side went on to make first innings totals of 537, 400 and 477 but India still managed to win two of those by an innings.