One consequence of the openers’ heroics was to gift the struggling Virat Kohli, arriving at 2-275, the most comfortable century of the seven he has now scored against Australia. Whether that emboldens him or deludes him henceforth we will soon see.

The Australian team is ageing before our eyes. Yes, it still wins at a good rate, but it also loses carelessly. It was only this year that it lost to the West Indies at the Gabba, that erstwhile fortress.

Now it’s going down the gurgler to India in Perth. It’s not the WACA Ground, which once was another of Australia’s locks, but it behaves much like the WACA. And it’s where, because of commercial imperatives, Australia has committed to kicking off home series for the next two years.

And if anyone tries to blame the pitch here, see Indian openers, above.

Doubtlessly, there will be inquiries, plural; sports administrators never settle for one. They will be pointless if they do not concede that the system has let the team down, at least in part.

It’s a system that says one thing and does another. It spruiks the paramountcy of Test cricket, but constructs a program that marginalises it. By and large, the Australians played either no cricket, little cricket or other forms in the lead-up to this series. It’s too hard a game to be taken so lightly.

Captain Pat Cummins said that if anything, he preferred to come into a new series underdone. As an alibi, that sounds all too convenient.

India played three Tests. Yes, they lost them all, to New Zealand, but at least it was the right format.

Perhaps the way the game has evolved, the Australian summer with the Big Bash League at its heart cannot have any other shape. If so, say so. Don’t patronise us.

In a five-Test series, much can change. As veterans Rohit Sharma and perhaps Mohammed Shami return, and noting the bold performances of India’s newcomers, it has its own tricky territory to negotiate, but from a lovely position.

Meantime, if you think Jasprit Bumrah has been a frightening proposition in Perth, imagine him with a pink ball under the Adelaide Oval lights.

Australia must change, their outlook and perhaps their personnel. Nathan McSweeney has looked all at sea, but it would be grossly unfair to give him only one chance. Nonetheless, Australia must be thinking about how to hit refresh on the Test XI or find themselves staring at the spinning wheel of death.

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Presently, they look like a certain football team we know that won a premiership recently and is still trying to win the same premiership again.

Watkins, by the way, though all at sea with the ball in his one and only Test, made difficult runs and contributed to Australia’s eventual win.

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