The Sydney Test saw two debutants for India and Australia respectively. For the Australian cricket team, Will Pucovski of Victoria finally made his debut after suffering numerous concussion injuries. For India, Delhi pacer Navdeep Saini became the 299th player to don the Test cap for the country. Australia won the toss and chose to bat in the Sydney Test but despite losing David Warner cheaply to Mohammed Siraj, it was Will Pucovski who shone. The debutant benefited from two dropped catches from Rishabh Pant and the young right-hander smashed a fifty on debut.
On the other hand, Navdeep Saini had a slightly nervous debut. The Delhi pacer gave away two boundaries in his first two balls and Pucovski notched up his fifty off Saini. Following the tea break, Pucovski and Marnus Labuschagne notched up the first 100 partnership for Australia in the series. However, disaster struck as Pucovski was undone by an inswinger from Navdeep Saini and he was trapped plumb in front. Thus, India's debutant got the better of the Australia debutant for his first wicket in Tests.
On the other hand, Steve Smith started off in confident fashion as he blasted five fours in 24 balls to notch up his highest score of the series so far. The Australian was aggressive against Ravichandran Ashwin, who had dismissed him cheaply in Adelaide and Melbourne. Smith and Labuschagne have ensured that Australia have a good score by the end of the day. If both batsmen do not get out before day 1, then Australia would have set a good total against a strongh bowling line-up.
The four-match series is level 1-1 after Australia won the Adelaide Test while India bounced back in style with a win in the Boxing Day Test.