Burns, Green add to Australia worries ahead of first Test

Australia's already compromised Test match preparations have plumbed new depths of disarray with uncertainty over the fitness of star allrounder Cameron Green and unease over the continued form struggle of opener Joe Burns.

The double dose of bad news overshadowed a timely reminder of the pink ball's potency, with an under-strength India batting line-up bowled out inside two sessions for 194 before Australia A capitulated under lights to finish all out for 108, still 86 runs behind.

Compounding the concern over the make-up of Australia's top-order batting for the first Test was the mastery shown by India's new-ball pair Mohammed Shami (3-29) and Jasprit Bumrah (2-33), with the latter also landing decisive blows with the bat.

Green, who was firming for a Test debut in next week's Vodafone Series opener at Adelaide Oval, was substituted out of the current tour match against India with concussion after being struck on the head while bowling.

The 21-year-old was diagnosed with mild concussion on Friday evening, and the likelihood he will be available for a Baggy Green Cap in Adelaide (if deemed to be in Australia's best XI) will be known in coming days as he continues his recovery.

"This is Cameron’s first concussion," Cricket Australia team doctor Pip Inge said.

"He has returned to the team hotel and will not play the remaining two days of the tour match.

"We will continue to monitor him and provide an update on his condition in due course."

It is the second concussion suffered by a member of Australia's Test squad this week, with 22-year-old opener Will Pucovski – also in line to debut at Adelaide – sidelined from the current match after being struck while batting in a tour match against the Indians at Drummoyne Oval on Tuesday.

Two members of the national selection panel – chair Trevor Hohns and George Bailey – were seen in deep discussion with Australia A coach Matthew Mott during tonight's dinner break, shortly after Green left the field after bowling the first delivery of his seventh over.

That ball was belted back at the allrounder with such force by India tail-ender Bumrah – on his way to a career-high score – that Green managed only to get the tip of his left index finger in its path before it smacked into the right side of his head near his eye socket.

Such was the force of the impact, Bumrah's partner Mohammed Siraj immediately dropped his bat and ran to check on Green's wellbeing.

Stunned by the blow and unsure of the damage caused, Green then offered a reassuring tap on the leg of Bumrah who also came down the pitch to offer pastoral care.

As Hohns and Bailey engaged in conversation during the dinner break that followed, Burns headed to the SCG practice nets having spent an over in the middle prior to the adjournment during which he did not face a ball.

The incumbent Test opener, who has already lost his Australia batting partner David Warner to a groin injury, had endured a torrid start to the summer with his first seven first-class innings producing 61 runs at an average of 8.7 prior to today.

That average was pruned further to 7.6 when Burns edged the second delivery he faced after the break from Bumrah, the first having been a loosener from India's strike bowler that passed wide outside off stump.

Burns was visibly frustrated having wafted his bat at the next ball that was pouched behind the stumps, his anxiety doubtless heightened by having to walk directly past Hohns and Bailey sitting stony faced in the boundary-side bunker on his way to the dressing room.

"You cannot write a worse script for Joe Burns," former Australia captain Allan Border said in his role as television commentator at the ground.

"He's not confident at all.

"His footwork is going nowhere, he's just hanging the bat."

The selectors' mood might have lightened slightly as Burns's Australia A opening partner Marcus Harris pushed his already compelling claim for a Test recall by batting almost an hour against India's attack to reach 26 before he edged to slip.

But the only real bright spot as the home team was the performance of their bowlers who reduced the visitors to 9-123 before Bumrah and Siraj's last-gasp counter-attack.

The ferocity of that 71-run stand (from 80 balls) was in keeping to the manner in which India approached much of their batting innings, which began with a blaze of strokes from opener Prithvi Shaw (40 from 29 balls) and ended in Bumrah's maiden half-century.

It was as if the tourists, minus their batting mainstays Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara as well as premier spinner Ravi Ashwin, were keen to complete their innings before the floodlights flicked on and the pink ball began misbehaving.

Shaw showed his intentions from the outset and refused to submit to caution even after losing his likely Test opening partner Mayank Agarwal in the third over when he edged Sean Abbott to slip.

Shaw and Shubman Gill took toll of Australia A's inexperienced pace attack, and a mix of deliveries either too full (in search of swing) or offering too much width that allowed the India pair to thrash through the many gaps in the field.

Gill brought up India's 50 in just the seventh over, with an imperious blow that cleared the fence at backward square leg.

But having blasted three boundaries from the first four balls of Will Sutherland's opening over – all through the off-side – Shaw fell for the four-card trick as the Victoria quick speared a seaming delivery past the opener's flashing blade and into his stumps.

It was allrounders Green and Jack Wildermuth who swung the game in Australia A's favour, as the bounce in the SCG pitch proved more problematic for India's batters than the hue of the ball.

Green had Gill caught behind from a delivery that angled in but held its line, before Wildermuth snared the wicket of India's acting captain Ajinkya Rahane to trigger a spell that yielded him 3-8 in 15 balls.

The Queenslander was a last-minute inclusion in the Australia A squad, after fellow all-rounder Moises Henriques was withdrawn due to a hamstring injury.

After he accounted for Rahane, Hanuma Vihari (15) and keeper Rishabh Pant (5), Abbott returned to pick up back-up gloveman Wriddhiman Saha and seamer Mohammed Shami (both for ducks) as India slumped to 8/116 and at risk of being bowled out within 35 overs.

But the lusty hitting of last pair Bumrah and Siraj not only pushed the total close to 200, it ensured the innings was not completed until just prior to dinner which meant Australia's openers would face the new pink ball right on dusk.

And Bumrah – whose previous highest first-class was 16 not out with an average of 7.6 – took the new ball with acclaim for his batting still ringing in his ears, after his teammates formed a guard of honour as he finished unbeaten on 55.

Given that's the same batting average as Burns boasts so far this summer, that innings might have provided the solace Australia sorely needs from another sobering day of Test preparation.

Australia A XI: Joe Burns, Marcus Harris, Nic Maddinson, Ben McDermott, Cameron Green (subbed out for Patrick Rowe), Jack Wildermuth, Alex Carey, Sean Abbott, Will Sutherland, Mitch Swepson, Harry Conway

India XI: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Shami, MD Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah

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