Solid innings by Usman Khawaja and Peter Handscomb allowed Australia to score 263 in its first innings, a score that may well prove competitive on the Arun Jaitley Stadium wicket in Delhi with India to bat last.

Pat Cummins has found a handy knack for winning the toss and did so once more deciding, unsurprisingly, that Australia would bat. Much more of a surprise was the fact that he was going to be the only pace bowler in the Australian attack on a pitch that had some of the characteristics of the one that India had won on by an innings in the opening Test in Nagpur.

Australia were going to play three front line spinners. Nathan Lyon would, of course, lead them and Todd Murphy was always going to play after his seven wickets on debut. Matt Kuhnemann had been flown over as a replacement for Mitchell Swepson who returned to Australia for the birth of his first child.

It’s less than a week since the Queenslander received the surprise call up to provide Australia with a left arm spinning option to back up the two right armers and, as the day panned out, he would later find himself sharing the new ball with Cummins when India batted.

After the misfires in the first Test this time the openers got their team off to a good start.

Before the Test, some pressure had been put on David Warner after two more failures in Nagpur and he seemed to be feeling it as he took an uncharacteristic 21 deliveries to get off the mark. He then had to recover after being struck on the arm but soldiered on to help add 50 for the opening partnership. Eventually, he nibbled at a fine delivery from Mohammed Shami to be caught behind for 15.

It was Ravi Jadeja that had dismissed Marnus Labuschagne in the first Test and he was soon introduced to attack the right hander after he came to the crease. It was Khawaja, however, that had to survive an lbw review made off the spinner’s first delivery.

Australia’s solid start was turned on its head in Ravi Ashwin’s ninth over as he dismissed the ICC’s top two ranked batters in the space of three deliveries. Labuschagne had hit four boundaries in the 18 that he’d scored before Ashwin got past his inside edge to trap him lbw.

Two balls later and Steve Smith was caught behind without scoring as he played down the line of a delivery that Ashwin managed to get to spin the other way and take the outside edge.

Australia were suddenly on the back foot and when Khawaja was given out next ball it looked as though the batters’ hard work during the morning had been completely undone. Fortunately for the opener his review was successful as the ball had pitched outside leg stump allowing Australia to go to lunch at 3-94 with Khawaja having brought up his half century.

Travis Head had returned to the side, replacing Matt Renshaw, having been surprisingly left out of the first match. There had been concerns about his ability to face spin bowling and, at the start of his innings, he didn’t look comfortable against Ashwin. It may have been a slight relaxing of concentration against the pace bowling he prefers that was his undoing. He was drawn into his favourite cut shot to the second ball of Shami’s eighth over but ended up slashing the ball into the hands of KS Rahul who took the sharp chance above his head at slip to be dismissed for 12.

For Khawaja it was perhaps also a bit of over confidence, in addition to the wonderful catch, that ended his fine innings at 81. He’d added a largely untroubled 59 with Handscomb for the fifth wicket when he reverse swept a ball from Jadeja for four. Next ball he middled another using the same shot but he couldn’t keep the ball down and KL Rahul dived to his right to cling on to a one-handed effort, allowing Jadeja to celebrate his 250th Test wicket.

Wickets often come in clusters on the sub-continent and Alex Carey had failed to score when he was dismissed in the next over. Even if he’d been well settled the ball Ashwin produced would have been a tough one to face. It spat out of the rough and clipped the shoulder of the bat to provide Virat Kohli with a straight forward catch at slip to leave Australia struggling at 6-168.

Australia’s tail had failed to wag in either of their innings during the first Test but bottom order runs were going to be critical if they were going to post a competitive total. Thanks largely to Handscomb the last four wickets managed to put on a further 95 runs. It was a very assured knock from the Victorian captain who guided the ball into the gaps particularly through the off side and, as he often does, played in either his Baggy Green or a floppy sun hat when facing only the spinners.

He added 59 with Cummins as Australia were eventually bowled out for 263. He remained unbeaten on 72, his highest score in his last fourteen Test innings and showed again why he has been chosen for his batting on turning surfaces.

When India batted Cummins took the new ball and then came up with another surprise when he asked Kuhnemann to share the opening bowling.

Despite being the lead spinning wicket taker in the Sheffield Shield last year, he has only played two matches in the competition this season and thirteen first class matches in total with Swepson being the first choice for Queensland.

He seemed to show few nerves in the four overs he delivered and caused enough problems to show that India will have to work hard on day two if it’s to gain a first innings lead.

More to come.