Jasprit Bumrah had a strange morning on the first day of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG but he finally found some joy as he dismissed Usman Khawaja for the fifth time in this Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

Khawaja’s dismissal was also strange as he managed to toe-finish a pull shot off the first delivery of Bumrah’s final spell in the middle session, playing a regular catch to KL Rahul short at mid-wicket. Khawaja, who was well placed on 57 after scoring his first half-century of the series, was perhaps beaten by a sudden slowdown in the pitch as he had timed his shot completely wrong.

Bumrah, still searching for the first wicket of his match, could hardly believe his luck when one of his more harmless deliveries of the day, an innocuous, waist-high looser, gave him the important wicket of the southpaw opener.

Bumrah responded with a wry grin and almost burst out laughing at the way he had managed to take that wicket. Khawaja had done well to stay away from Bumrah as he only had to play three balls against India’s leading seamer in the first session against the new ball, but in the end his wicket was lost to him again in this series against the older ball in a soft nothing Dismissal.

Sam Konstas disrupts Bumrah’s rhythm

Earlier in the day, Bumrah appeared to have made another strong start with the new ball as he looked like he was going to outdo debutant Sam Konstas in his first two or three overs. Konstas played and missed in a series of competitive games, with Bumrah breathing fire and coaxing plenty of seam movement from the Melbourne pitch.

While it looked like Bumrah deserved a wicket, Konstas flipped the script in his fourth over and ended up scoring three scoop shots in just one over while stealing Bumrah’s over for two boundaries and a maximum. Konstas had a memorable debut, scoring 60 off just 65 deliveries in the first session, while putting India under pressure with a display of bold shots in his first Test innings.

Konstas ultimately lost to Ravindra Jadeja but India dominated in the first two sessions as Australia went into the tea break on 176-2 with Marnus Labuschagne also on 44*.