On a Feroz Shah Kotla track that had plenty of cracks even before the game began, there was variable bounce and movement for the quicks, and the ball was starting to grip for the spinners, with TV commentators even wondering whether this match was being played at Headingley. That may seem a tailor-made surface for bowling first, but Australia's stand-in captain Shane Watson, taking over from an injured Michael Clarke, decided to bat wagering that the track will become even more difficult to score on as the match progresses.
The bulk of the runs in the morning session came from Phillip Hughes, who less than a week ago was set to go down as the benchmark for bumbling batting after a torturous time against India's spinners. Some of his confidence came back with a battling 69 in Mohali, and he was refreshingly positive on the difficult pitch. He was helped by some wayward bowling from the quicks early on, thumping three fours in a Bhuvneshwar Kumar over.
Everyone was waiting for the first spinner to come on, both to see how much the ball would rip and to see how Hughes would cope. Ashwin, India's most successful bowler in the series, came on in the ninth over and Hughes promptly struck him for two boundaries through midwicket to gallop to 29 off 23 deliveries.
There was some turn available, but it was Ishant Sharma who provided the breakthroughs. There were puffs of dust coming off the pitch when the new-ball bowlers were on, Ishant sent down a grubber early on which zipped through at ankle height, and in the 21st over he bowled a snorter that sprang up from short of a length to thud into Hughes' helmet. Hughes grinned ruefully, amazed at how much that delivery lifted, and two balls later his aggressive innings came to an end, as he tentatively poked at an Ishant delivery that crashed into the stumps.
The other wicket had been an early one, as Ishant had David Warner nicking to Virat Kohli at slip for a duck. Ed Cowan persevered in his usual un-flashy style, putting away some of the loose deliveries but mainly concentrating on keeping his wicket intact.
Keeping him company was Watson, who is coming off what will rank among the most dramatic ten days of Watson's life, from his high-profile axing before the Mohali Test, to the birth of his son, and becoming Australia's 44th Test captain. Watson had several close calls in his short stay, surviving a stumping chance by centimetres, and an lbw appeal from Pragyan Ojha. Still, he'll be satisfied with Australia's score at lunch despite the two wickets, as this Test promises to be a low-scoring one.
Watson's return was one of five changes Australia made - Mitchell Johnson came in for the injured Mitchell Starc, Glenn Maxwell took over one of the allrounders' spots from Moises Henriques, James Pattinson is back to spearhead the attack and the fit-again Matthew Wade reclaimed the wicketkeeping gloves from Brad Haddin.
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