Pujara's presence a painful reminder for Aussies

Tim Paine might not be saddled with the weight of captaincy in the three-day Test warm-up against the Indians (as the tourists' auxiliary XI have chosen to call themselves), but he was given an early reminder of the burden that job can carry.

It's almost two years to the month since Paine plonked down before a media conference at the Sydney Cricket Ground, having spent almost six sessions in the field watching India pile on 600-plus in the final Test of an historic summer, and hailed Cheteshwar Pujara's batting genius.

Not that Pujara's influence on his team's first Test series win on Australia soil needed the rival captain's confirmation.

It was sorely self-evident after the right-hander knocked and nudged and nurdled 521 runs from his seven times at bat, during which he faced more deliveries (1258) than any visiting Test batter outside an Ashes contest that he was the decisive factor in India's 2-1 win.

And so, when the familiar shape of the stickily solid 32-year-old made his way to the middle of Drummoyne Oval with his team facing early strife in their opening first-class fixture, Paine's mind might have drifted to that media interaction in the same city two years prior.

That was when he admitted his ace bowling line-up – Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon across all four Tests – had tried everything in their arsenal but failed to find a weak point in Pujara's defence.

"We've tried to bounce him a little bit, we've tried lots of different things at him," he said at the time.

"We've tried wide of the stumps, we've tried at the stumps. Nathan Lyon has tried over and around (the wicket) – I don't think there's too many things we haven't tried, to be fair, and he's been too good for us."

"With Pujara, if you're not swinging the ball he's extremely hard to get out."

Come the four-match Vodafone Test Series starting at Adelaide Oval on December 17, Australia can hardly plan for a better start than opening pair Michael Neser and James Pattinson gave them this morning.

Neser nipped out opener Shubman Gill with his opening delivery, and Pattinson sent back the Indians' other opener Prithvi Shaw (also for 0) in the following over.

But despite the use of a near-pristine ball, and perhaps because of the brilliant sunshine and stiff nor-westerly howling off the adjoining Parramatta River, there was no swing for Australia A's quintet of seamers and Pujara son settled back into type.

In his SCG lamentation, just days before Virat Kohli's men celebrated their first Test series triumph in Australia since their maiden tour in 1948, Paine noted his bowlers' strategy to attack Pujara's stumps early in his innings.

It didn’t work so well, and doesn't seem likely to do the trick this time around given the surety with which the long-format specialist worked the ball off his pads and offered a broad defensive blade to deliveries threatening his wicket.

But what Paine also revealed in that previous chat was the inkling his team had gleaned in the second match of that 2018-19 summer which was also the first played at the new Perth Stadium.

The fact Pujara contributed just 24 and four in that game played a large part in Australia's only victory of the series, coincidentally on what was the only pitch of that campaign that offered any demonstrable bounce.

On the flatter, slower surfaces in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, Pujara habitually ground down Australia speed and spin bowlers which largely explained Paine's preparedness to concede they were bereft of ideas come series end.

It was Pujara's discomfort against pace and bounce that Paine saw clearly in Perth, and which Travis Head - his captaincy understudy in the current three-day game at Drummoyne – ultimately deployed to claim Pujara for 54, something of a victory in the circumstances.

The move was partly brought by circumstances – Queensland quick Mark Steketee had left the field for medical treatment, so Head brought back Pattinson who started his spell with a full delivery that Pujara punched back down the ground with typically minimalist precision.

But that was followed by four short increasingly fast deliveries that Pujara fended away until the last of them which jagged towards his left hip and was deflected to Marcius Harris who had been carefully positioned at leg gully.

It was the same ploy, and the same catcher that had brought Pujara's downfall in the second innings at Melbourne two years ago when he was dismissed for a duck as Cummins who had Pujara, Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane removed in the space of six magic deliveries.

As Head noted at the end of the opening day at Drummoyne, which the Indians finished 8-237 with Rahane 108 not out, it takes bowlers of Cummins and Pattinson's raw pace, as well as a pitch exhibiting some bounce if that ploy is to achieve repeated results.

"I think it depends on the wicket, who's bowling, how we feel like the wicket's playing," Head said.

"At the start we were trying to get him caught behind and caught in the slips, that was the way it was playing but once the ball got softer it became more stump-to-stump.

"I guess you rotate through plans A. B and C and I think a lot is determined by what type of wickets we're playing on.

"It's a lot different at Adelaide Oval and Perth to the MCG and Sydney.

"We know what we're going to get from him (Pujara).

"We tried a few different things for him today, different plans and it's nice at the end of the day one of them worked and one of the fielding placements we put in was able to get the breakthrough.

"I worked closely with Painey out there and tried a few different things, and continued talking and continued working on things.

"We're day one into this and it was our first crack at him, we've got another innings and then another game before the first Test so it was nice that one plan was able to work.

"I felt like the way we were able to bowl to him and suffocate and shut down the scoreboard against him was really good.

"But it was nice to see the back of him."

Vodafone Test Series v India 2020-21

Australia Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Sean Abbott, Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner

India Test squad: Virat Kohli (c) (first Test only), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj

First Test: December 17-21, Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (day-night)

Second Test: December 26-30, MCG, 10.30am AEDT

Third Test: January 7-11, SCG, 10.30am AEDT

Fourth Test: January 15-19, Gabba, 11am AEDT