Debutant Konstas delivers Boxing Day punch at MCG

Australia's stated pre-game ambition to "throw something different" at India's dominant pace bowlers brought a result few foresaw as teenager Sam Konstas's incandescent debut crowned a dominant Boxing Day batting effort.

While 'old hands' Steve Smith (68no), Marnus Labuschagne (72) and Usman Khawaja (57) provided the backbone, it was 19-year-old Konstas's flamboyance at the top that set Australia on track for a day one tally of 6-311.

Konstas's 60 from 65 balls was an innings of far greater significance than a simple scorecard can relay, and will rival David Hookes's five consecutive boundaries off England's Tony Greig on debut in the 1977 Centenary Test among indelible MCG memories.

Almost half a century after Hookes's heroics it remains the stuff of legend among those who rightly or otherwise claim to have been in attendance, and the same will doubtless be true as the official Boxing Day attendance of 87,242 swells exponentially in decades to come.

After skipper Pat Cummins won his first coin toss of the series and opted to unleash his batters, Australia's stumps total represented the best day-one return of any team at the annual MCG Test since the home team's 3-345 against West Indies in 2015.

However, in keeping with events of this knife-edge battle across three previous Tests, it took just one lapse for the tide to abruptly turn and once again that irresistible force was India's fast-bowling genius Jasprit Bumrah.

At 2-237 almost an hour into the final session, Australia held the whip that had been initially brandished so brutally by Konstas, only for their grip to loosen as they lost 3-9 in 23 balls.

After Labuschagne holed out looking to recapture some of the day's earlier impetus, Travis Head's golden run ended ingloriously when he was bowled by Bumrah for a duck without offering a shot as the bowler simply shrugged his shoulders in deference to his own skill.

Then allrounder Mitchell Marsh's attempted heave over mid-wicket brought nothing more than a top edge and his fifth single-figure score from six Test knocks as Bumrah stretched his wicket-tally for the series to 24 at barely 12 runs apiece.

Despite the flurry of wickets, Australia kept their foot on the pedal throughout the final hour as Smith and Alex Carey added 53, with the latter showing a Konstas-like willingness to take on the bowling in blazing 31 from 41 deliveries before succumbing to the second new ball.

Smith survived a couple of confident lbw shouts early in his innings – one (on 18) that brought an unsuccessful review from India and another they sorely considered – but came to revel in the stifling conditions.

He took a particularly heavy toll on fast bowler Mohammed Siraj, whose feisty demeanour was at odds with his unflattering figures, as shown when Smith imperiously lifted him beyond the square leg fence.

But Australia's most consistent top-order effort of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Series thus far was built on the unconventionally unmissable contribution from the youngest opener deployed across almost 150 years of the nation's Test encounters.

Konstas revealed in an interview with Channel Seven following his dismissal that his array of extravagant reverse ramp shots and charging at India's quicks was born of the moment rather than through any pre-game planning.

But there's also a strong chance it rapidly evolved after Bumrah's initial over when the debutant played and missed at four of the six deliveries, in the same manner the India spearhead had pinned Konstas's predecessors to the crease all series.

Rather than simply become another statistic, the right-hander took the attack using a mindset and a method rarely, if ever, encountered by the world's number one-ranked Test bowler.

Having signalled his sudden change in approach by aiming unsuccessful reverse ramps in consecutive overs from Bumrah, Konstas shimmied down the pitch and launched a huge heave at Mohammed Siraj that again failed to yield contact.

However, the verbal confrontation between the two – which saw the teenager follow the fiery quick after that delivery and again come over's end – lit the touch paper for the pyrotechnics to follow.

The audacious scoop over fine leg from Bumrah's yorker-length offering to start his next over was immediately followed by an even more outrageous reverse over a wide-eyed slips cordon who watched the bail sail beyond the boundary rope.

The impact those two counter-blows had upon the previously unerring fast bowler was graphically illustrated when he pitched full and wide beyond Konstas's flailing bat.

Another reverse ramp for a boundary forced India into a drastic field change with a fly slip deployed even though the game was barely a half-hour old, and when Konstas continued his attack on Siraj it was Virat Kohli who was first to lose his cool.

But perhaps the most telling example of Konstas's tactics and the radical momentum swing they inspired accompanied his installation as the 59th Australia men's batter to reach 50 in their maiden Test innings.

His bid to advance against Siraj and clip him through mid-wicket dribbled from the bottom edge of the bat but, despite being just the 14th over of the innings, India's leg-side fielders were set so deep the Australia openers scrambled two as the crowd rose to the new boy's milestone.

Konstas had taken an unprecedented 18 from a single Bumrah over en-route to his half-century and for just the second time in the series (after Australia's first innings at the Gabba) the home team had survived the pace ace's initial spell without surrendering a wicket.

It was the introduction of Ravindra Jadeja's left-arm spin that ended Australia's most productive opening stand since Khawaja and David Warner's 90 in the corresponding MCG Test against Pakistan last summer.

But by that stage Australia had seized the initiative in the must-win match, and the Boxing Day crowd had witnessed the announcement of a major new talent whose arrival will endure regardless of his career path henceforth.

Not only did Konstas post the highest maiden score by an Australia Test opener since Will Pucovski's 62 (also against India) at the SCG four summers ago, his strike rate of 92.3 was the best by any Australia batter to have passed 50 on debut since Ashton Agar's equally memorable 98 from 101 balls (97.03) at Trent Bridge in 2013.

It was the third-fastest half-century posted by an Australia batter on debut behind Agar and Adam Gilchrist (against Pakistan at the Gabba in 1999).

Tellingly, the previous best strike rate for an Australia opener in their inaugural knock was Wayne Phillips' 64.63 when he belted 159 against Pakistan at Perth more than four decades ago.

The game adopted a more recognisable Test-match pace as Khawaja and Labuschagne built steadily on the foundation so hastily laid in the frantic opening session.

Khawaja's first half-century since he made 75 against West Indies at the Gabba in January contained some neat deflections that complemented Konstas's brute force, as well as a couple of sumptuous strokes down the ground.

Rather like their contrasting path to the centre at day's start, the 38-year-old seemed set to reach the same destination as his upstart partner albeit in twice as much time until the irrepressible Bumrah returned to the attack.

With the first ball of his spell, Bumrah coaxed the left-hander into one of the pull shots Khawaja so enjoys only to see it hit high on the bat and loop limply to mid-wicket.

It was the fifth time in six completed innings this series that Khawaja had fallen to his new nemesis, and it's not unfair to suggest his highest score of the campaign to date was enabled by the fact he didn't have to face Bumrah until the innings' ninth over.

Khawaja's was the only Australia wicket to fall during the middle session as Labuschagne and Smith appeared increasingly comfortable on a pitch that seemed to contain few of the day-one demons of recent summers past.

Labuschagne's second 50 of the series arrived amid a flow of boundaries as he delicately dabbed Jadeja behind point, and the pair's 50-run stand shortly after tea signalled an upping of the tempo.

Prior to the game, Australia coach Andrew McDonald had reiterated his team's number-three batter was at his most effective when he was being busy, showing intent and at his most "annoying" to opposition bowlers.

Labuschagne had duly looked the most fluent he's been during the summer with boundaries behind and in front of the wicket as he eyed his first Test century since his match-saving 111 at Old Trafford during the 2023 Ashes campaign.

But having indicated to Fox Cricket during an on-ground interview during the final session's first drinks break that Australia's aggressive approach against India's spinners hadn't been pre-ordained, he instantly fell victim to that mindset.

First ball after the resumption, Labuschagne skipped down the pitch to off-spinner Washington and slapped a catch to Kohli who held at above his head as deep-set mid-off.

Labuschagne could hardly reconcile what he's done with the bowling seemingly at his mercy, and his upset could only have compounded as his demise triggered a middle-order implosion with India clawing back a day that had threatened to slip from their grasp.

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 10 wickets

Third Test: Match drawn

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (vc), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal