Is Will Pucovski Australian cricket’s future?

Will Pucovski’s debut was not chanceless but it was essentially nerveless. He held his nerve.

Australia's Will Pucovski held his nerve when many of those around him didn’t Picture. Phil Hillyard

Will Pucovski’s debut was not chanceless but it was essentially nerveless.

He held his nerve when his senior partner hobbled a few runs then slashed carelessly. He held it when his innings was interrupted by rain early on and again when he was up and running, he held it when India could not hold the chances he offered.

He outscored Marnus Labuschagne in their partnership, and looked active and attentive, but most of all he looked as if he belonged, as if this moment had been coming all his life and this was where he was supposed to be all along.

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His innings at the SCG confirmed everything that has been said since he could first hold a cricket bat. It confirmed the dreams of his migrant father, Jan, and the perception of Ricky Ponting, who was called down to watch the boy bat when he was nine years old.

Rock critic Jon Landau wrote in 1974, after watching an unknown band open for Bonnie Raitt, that he had seen “rock ’n’ roll’s future and its name is Bruce Springsteen”.

Ponting is not given to such hyperbole, but you may have excused him if he was.

Pucovski’s innings confirmed the determination of the best minds in Australian cricket — reported for more than a week in these pages — to get him out in the middle for the third Test.

Once they knew he had recovered from his latest concussion and was gagging to play, selectors had no choice but to jettison those to whom the gods granted lesser gifts and summon the 22-year-old.

Joe Burns and Travis Head were abandoned.

Both good cricketers and reliable team members, but neither had shown any indication they were great Test players.

On Thursday, however, last week’s batting calamities in an embarrassing loss in Melbourne were soothed by a revamped batting order that played with noticeably more intent and aggression, to finish a rain-interrupted day one at the SCG solidly placed at 2-166.

“It was one of those days where I was just absolutely loving it,” Pucovski said afterwards.

“Probably my favourite day of cricket to date and it’s just a really exciting experience playing your first game for Australia but on top of that obviously with a bit of background to get to the position I’m in, it was just pretty awesome to be out there.”

Pucovski’s potential has been announced for a long, long time.

The pair of double centuries for Victoria at the beginning of the Sheffield Shield season were just a gentle reminder, a polite beep from the car behind to let you know the lights have changed.

When he was trapped in front for 62 after 150 minutes at the crease, it came as something of a shock because he’d seemed so comfortable out there.

The other good news for Australia was the return of Steve Smith and Labuschagne. Both were brighter and better than in the first two Tests.

Both worked hard to counter the frugal ways of the Indian bowlers, and the hard work paid off.

Smith hit a couple of crisp drives to the boundary off Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Saini to start his innings, then smashed Ravi Ashwin over his head a little later to confirm his return.

Labuschagne had scrapped his way to within touching distance of 50 twice in the series, but yesterday he was in control as he got there and moved past the minor milestone.

Pucovski was dropped twice and could have been out at least three times on the way to his half century, but good innings, good batsmen and good luck are a reliable trifecta.

India cannot blame luck for putting him down twice. When you pick your second-best wicketkeeper, you play with fire. Rishabh Pant replaced Wriddhiman Saha for the second Test, presumably because he is a better bat. But he is not a better gloveman.

Pant put down Pucovski in the 22nd over, the batsman offering a fine edge as he lunged forward to a ball from Ashwin.

It spilled to the ground and so too did a skied ball that came from the top edge of a very ordinary pull shot from the same batsman off the bowling of Mohammed Siraj.

Pant ran backwards and reached for the delivery, which spilled from his gloves, but he then claimed to have intercepted it before he and it hit the ground.

Replays suggested it was wishful thinking at best from the Indian keeper.

Pucovski admitted he thought he was out.

“I thought he had claimed it so I just assumed he must have caught it,” he said. “Maybe I’ve got too much faith in people.”

For all the excitement about Pucovski, he has one obvious flaw and it is against the short ball. It’s not that it risks his life so much as when he attempts the hook shot it risks his innings.

David Warner is a worry. Selectors took a gamble with his fitness and it may have backfired.

He had looked OK, if not pain-free, in the nets, but that was a controlled situation where he would warm up and manage his movements. In a Test you warm up, hang around for all the ceremony of the first day, then go out to bat.

Warner is an instinctive beast – he pushed the first ball and took off like a rabbit. He was hobbling halfway up the pitch.

Still, he continued to push balls around, rotate the strike, do the things that Warner does. But four overs in, he played wide and loose at a delivery from Saini.

It was a poor shot and he was lucky to survive. The bowler stuck to the same line but with a fuller length the following delivery and Warner made the same mistake. This time he got a fine edge and the ball floated gently to Cheteshwar Pujara.