Perhaps his temporary return to captaincy can help him click. What Australia really need, above all else, is the return of Smith to making runs. Only twice in Test history has Australia lost nine wickets more cheaply than that day in India’s capital - the infamous 2011 Cape Town 9 for 21, and while slogging 47 more declaration runs in the 2005 win over the short-lived World XI in Sydney. Delhi’s 113 to squander a winning position is sixth on that list. The 91 all out in Nagpur to start this series is the lowest score of all. Australian teams have been bowled out 76 times in India. These are the players with the task of changing a dreadful batting tour. Peter Handscomb is effectively Khawaja’s opposite, having now produced his best performances across two India tours while playing only a dozen times elsewhere. Even Usman Khawaja, vastly experienced elsewhere, has been batting for the first time in India. So is prodigy all-rounder Cameron Green, who at number six joins a batting order full of India debutants: Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey. Starc is finally ready to play, albeit with some limitations still in the damaged finger on his bowling hand. At the same time, the tour goes on and the tourists have to find a way back into it when the third Test starts in Indore on Wednesday. The graveness of that situation has showed up the absurdity of some of the lamentations about the team’s results on the field.

Steve Smith's Men by Geoff Lemon