Steve Smith and Shaun Marsh made hay as the sun blazed down in Mumbai on Friday and Australia will look to add a few more runs on day two of the warm-up match against India A, before turning their focus to the bowling.
Waugh compares Ashwin to Bradman
What the Aussies wanted was a good batting workout from this practice match at the Brabourne Stadium, before the start of their four-match Test series against India, which begins in Pune next week, and they certainly got that, with Smith and Marsh helping themselves to centuries.
After David Warner fell following a quick cameo and Matt Renshaw failed to really get his innings going – both wickets were taken by Navdeep Saini – Smith and Marsh came together for a 250-run partnership.
That alliance meant Australia had much the better of day one of this three-day warm-up, with the visitors finishing the opening day on 327 for three.
Both Smith (107, 161b, 12x4, 1x6) and Marsh (104, 173b, 11x4, 1x6), who looks to have sealed his place in the playing XI for the first Test with this century, retired after getting past the three-figure mark.
Peter Handscomb, who has taken to international cricket like a duck to water, came in and scored 45, before the skipper of India A – Hardik Pandya – managed to pick up the batsman's wicket.
Mitchell Marsh, the all-rounder, and Matthew Wade, the wicketkeeper, are batting and it remains to be seen how long Smith will want his players to stay in the middle before declaring and turning focus to the bowling.
At the end of the day, if Australia are to make a fist of this Test series over India, much will depend on how potent their bowling can be.
The Aussies have rested their two main pacers in Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood for this match, but Smith will want to see how the likes of Nathan Lyon and Steve O'Keefe perform against the India A batsmen.
When and where to follow live
The match on day 2 is set to begin at 9.30am IST (4am GMT, 3pm AEDT).
While there is no live coverage of the action on TV or online, you can follow the live score of the warm-up match on the BCCI official website.
