These two imperatives had to be weighed in the moment by each batsman. But none of the six Dick Van Dykes got to 20 balls and four didn’t get past 10. As they now know,the alternative to a sitting duck is not a duck.

Yes,this was a testing pitch. Most are in India. Yes,with the restoration of Ravindra Jadeja and the revitalisation of Virat Kohli and despite the absence of Rishabh Pant,this is a strong Indian team. And yes,Australia’s team here was a bit of a patchwork. But by Saturday night,by playing bold but thoughtful cricket,they had if not control of the Test match at least the honours on the first tee on Sunday.

And then in barely an hour-and-a-half,Australia had surrendered the match,the series and a still to be quantified helping of their self-belief at the start of what was always going to be a momentous year. Their place in the world Test championship final in June is not yet guaranteed,remember.

Meantime,as Australia flailed away in Delhi,in Mount Maunganui,England romped to their sixth Test win in a row and their 10th in their past 11.

Who’s to blame for Australia’s capitulation? In the round,questions remain about the prelude to this series,despite Cricket Australia protestations that it was working to a carefully laid plan.

In the moment,impossible to ignore,what was lacking was leadership. As each swipe across the line begat another,as the next wicket tumbled over the heels of the last until it looked like a mania had taken hold of the team,someone needed to give the order to go to Plan B. On that,it has to be said that Cummins’ brain fade was far greater cause for concern than the golden duck it cost him.

Wherever the balance of power lies between coach,captain and senior players in the new dispensation,or even if they are being run as an anarcho-syndicalist commune,a la Monty Python,someone had to call the cricket equivalent of a time-out. Instead,in the blink of an eye,they were all out.

Only then did the scale of Australia’s dereliction become apparent in its context. India’s target was negligible,yet they lost four wickets attaining it. It wasn’t close because India have batting down to No. 13,but in the bowling of off-spinners Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy,there was enough to suggest that a target of 200 or so might have given the second half of this match an entirely different complexion. We’ll never know. That’s the tragedy.

Conspicuously,the Indians hit only one sweep between them,and that was really more of a low-level glance from Rohit Sharma.

There were enough other ways of getting out,and there were enough other ways of making runs,too,for the judicious. In the first innings,Australia had balanced these two certainties admirably. In the second,they came armed with brooms instead of bats.

Cheteshwar Pujara said the sweep was a shot he wouldn’t play on this low-bouncing,sharp-turning pitch. After 100 Tests,he knows a thing or two about batting in India. How to bat in India? How about bat a bit like India?

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