The two teams were something like optional extras for the hour or so before the match: forbidden to warm-up on the ground, the captains summoned to collect their caps from Modi and Albanese, then shaking hands with their leaders and obliged to stand alongside them for the national anthems.

Spectators, too, seemed to have been drawn as much for politics as Test cricket. The attendance peaked around 50,000 for the pageant and the opening session, then ebbed away steadily across a hot afternoon.

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Shami’s opening ball was a wild wide, and amid a few more extras, KS Bharat missed an entirely straightforward edge behind from Travis Head off Umesh Yadav. Thus reprieved, Head started to motor, and the 50 was raised in 13 overs.

After the introduction of Ravichandran Ashwin, Head’s insistence upon attack brought his downfall, clumping to mid-on. Marnus Labuschagne shaped to work Shami into the covers and dragging onto the stumps to underline the slowness of the pitch.

Smith was beaten once when Ashwin worked the ball across him, drawing an “oooh” from the crowd, but otherwise offered sound defence and patience opposite Khawaja’s deep reserves of concentration: it took 30 balls before Smith found the boundary.

For Khawaja, the amiable character of the pitch allowed a return to the bubble he had batted in almost constantly throughout last year’s Test series in Pakistan. Implicitly trusting his defence, dispatching anything short or leg side, and occupying the crease in a near meditative state.

It was not until 30 minutes after tea that Jadeja became the first bowler to beat Khawaja’s bat, and he also avoided any temptation to sweep or reverse, firm in the belief that he could absorb any pressure imposed in such conditions. It was a task beyond Smith and also Handscomb, who twice hooked confidently before hanging back to Shami’s subtle reverse swing and losing off stump.

On another level, in the presence of Modi’s festivities, Khawaja went about proving something else. As things stand politically, he is as close as anyone is likely to see a Pakistani cricketer batting and succeeding at this stadium for a long, long time.