A rare failure for Usman Khawaja

Walking onto the SCG to face India, Usman Khawaja's previous nine innings had been as follows: 174, 9*, 121, 109*, 144, 56, 62, 104* and 70. He was understandably confident, getting off the mark first ball, and swiftly gliding to 14 from five. But Ashish Nehra was getting a modicum of movement with the new ball, and a perfectly pitched delivery drew and edge well caught by MS Dhoni. It proved that even the best can get a good one early, and perhaps also that Trent Boult may provide Khawaja with a challenge or two in New Zealand.

The prospect of a free hit appears to be a strong deterrent against no balls for most, but in the fourth over Jaspreet Bumrah was unable to stop himself from transgressing twice in a row. The two free hits were summarily dispatched by Shane Watson, power drives skating either side of the cover fielder. Bumrah did not help himself by missing his yorker each time, delivering low full tosses that Watson was well balanced to crack through the off side.

Cameron Bancroft had first been picked for Australia in the Test squad for a tour of Bangladesh that was to be postponed indefinitely due to security concerns in October. He finally made his first appearance for Australia in the last international match of the home season, picked speculatively as a wicketkeeper in the absence of Matthew Wade. Bancroft took the gloves without the Perth Scorchers for the first time this season, and other stumpers such as Chris Hartley, Tim Ludeman and Tim Paine had cause to query the choice. They had further ammunition when Bancroft, who had caught Shikhar Dhawan, fumbled a stumping chance from Cameron Boyce when Suresh Raina danced down the wicket.

There seemed to be no stopping Virat Kohli as he surged to another half century. However Boyce had delivered a fine spell, defeating Rohit Sharma before the missed Raina stumping. He offered air once more from his second last ball and drew Kohli down, causing a miscued jumble of bat, ground, feet that had the ball corkscrewing back towards the stumps. Kohli dived back to try to avoid a stumping, only to watch as the stumps were broken.