The maligned MCG pitch is in the gun again after a day of attritional cricket which has left Australia walking a tightrope in their bid to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Cricket authorities will be hoping for a flurry of wickets in the ensuing days or risk another poor rating from the International Cricket Council which would leave the MCG on the cusp of losing the coveted fixture.
Mitchell Starc reacts after Tim Paine dropped Virat Kohli.Credit:AAP
For the third year in a row, the Boxing Day Test is shaping as a grind that will stretch the patience of batsmen, bowlers and fans.
If a pitch that provides a genuine contest for bat and ball is the key to preserving Test cricket then the game's traditional form will struggle on decks such as this.
The Melbourne Cricket Club and curator Matt Page have tried numerous methods to revive the pitch. They've tinkered with the base, they've raised fewer wickets on the square, left extra grass and more moisture but it has had scant effect.
The sight of a pitch tinged with green in the morning raised hopes for a more lively affair but that faith was being sorely tested by the evening.
Virat Kohli (left) and Cheteshwar Pujara of India (right) pile on the runs.Credit:AAP
India's stumps score of 2/215 was the lowest for a completed first day of place since Australia reached 4/206 against South Africa in 1997.
By comparison, Australia were 3/244 at the corresponding point last year on a pitch which was later rated as poor by the ICC.
Under new ICC guidelines, the MCG would be handed three demerit points if given another poor rating by the match referee, two shy of the five points which would trigger a 12-month suspension for a venue.
With points carried over for a rolling five-year period, such a scenario would leave the Melbourne Cricket Club with little wiggle room.
The warning signs were there early. Spin was introduced in only the eighth over of the day. Third slip was moved not long past the half-hour mark. Minutes later second slip followed.
For long periods there were as many men in front of the wicket as there were behind, which is a telltale sign of a lack of pace.
The new ball, with the exception of Starc's lifter late in the day, was not always carrying through to Paine. One delivery bounced several times.
Paine was unsure what he would have done had he won the toss but on evidence of the day's play it was clear Kohli had made the right call by batting.
"Yeah tough going. There wasn't much on offer," paceman Pat Cummins, the pick of Australia's bowlers with two wickets, told Fox Cricket. "Especially this morning. There wasn't really any sideways or bounce or pace. It got a little bit quicker towards the end of the day but not a lot in it for us bowlers and they batted pretty well.
"I think the key on this kind of wicket is you're not going to blast them out so you've just got to be really disciplined. We bowled a couple of good spells, a couple of maidens, I think it's about trying to bowl five or six maidens in a row and hopefully they crack. But they're batting pretty well at the moment."
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