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Marnus Labuschagne returned to form with an impressive 64 and Travis Head hit an unbeaten 53 as Australia took the lead in the second day-night Test against India on Saturday.

In front of a large crowd at the Adelaide Oval, the hosts went on to score 86-1 in reply to India’s 180 after enduring a torrid two hours with the loss of Usman Khawaja (13) on Friday.

By the break on the second day they had reached 191-4, with the dangerous head of Mitchell Marsh accompanying them on two sides.

In an action-packed opening session, three wickets fell, two to Jasprit Bumrah and one to Nitish Kumar Reddy.

India made the early breakthrough when Nathan McSweeney threw away the hard work he had put in under lights on Friday.

Playing on his home ground, he added just one to his overnight score of 38 before being beaten by Bumrah’s sheer pace, hitting wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.

It was the third time in a row that he failed to beat Bumrah, having suffered the same fate on his debut in Perth last week.

Bumrah and Pant combined to remove Steve Smith (2) four overs later, with the former Australian captain shaking his head in disbelief after falling into a similar trap.

At the other end, Labuschagne maintained his focus and kept pushing Harshit Rana beyond the boundaries as he rediscovered the magic that had eluded him for some time.

He came into the game under pressure and there were increasing calls for him to be dropped.

But the tenacious number three, who came back into the game with 20, silenced the doubters by reaching 50 in a patient 114 balls in her 21st Test.

With the milestone behind him, he began to play more freely, hitting 17 from a Rana over before a brilliant catch from Yashasvi Jaiswal at the gully ended his reign.

Adopting his usual aggressive stance, Head hit two sixes off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin as he raced to an 18th Test half-century in 63 balls.