Josh Hazlewood grabbed four wickets as Australia’s red-hot pace attack tore through the Indian batting to dismiss the visitors for 150 at tea on day one of the opening test in Perth on Friday.
After captain Jasprit Bumrah won the toss, India lost six wickets in the middle session, including flamboyant Rishabh Pant (37) and impressive debutant Nitish Kumar Reddy (41).
Hazlewood took 4-29 while Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Marsh and Pat Cummins all claimed two wickets each.
After a crushing 3-0 home series defeat by New Zealand, India sprung a surprise at the toss by dropping veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, allrounder Ravindra Jadeja and middle-order batsman Sarfaraz Khan.
Coupled with the absence of opener and regular skipper Rohit Sharma following the birth of a child, and without injured No 3 Shubman Gill, it left India with a fragile batting line-up that Australia exploited.