Warner, Matthew Wade and Mitchell Starc are among a group of players not expected to be seen next time Australia compete for a T20 World Cup, and others such as Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis may well join them, either to prioritise the franchise circuit or concentrate solely on Test cricket. Maxwell and Stoinis will be particularly frustrated by their inability to summon more substantial performances in the chase.

Head, who threatened for a while to reprise his century in the ODI Cup decider, now faces the challenge of multiple formats as the team’s most explosive batter, and is already on close watch to ensure he is not a spent force by the time the India Tests roll around.

Marsh, too, will be closely monitored. By putting his hand up as captain, he gave Cummins a breather in leadership terms, but was entirely unable to impose himself on this tournament as he did in the UAE in 2021 and India last year. The selectors will have to ponder whether they lost more than they gained with this appointment.

Similar decisions must be made about the bowling attack, for which Nathan Ellis and Ashton Agar spent too many days on the substitutes’ bench given the conditions this tournament is being played in.

Aside from the exemplary Josh Hazlewood, Australia’s bowlers had been humbled after Marsh won the toss. Starc’s best is world beating, but he was obligingly full and predictable for Rohit. Cummins and Adam Zampa also erred full, while Stoinis was wretchedly short against India’s captain, one of the most brutal exponents of the pull shot the game has ever seen.

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Rohit’s 50 arrived from just 18 balls, and his early avalanche made a score of 220 plus very plausible. India were 2-155 with six overs left.

Starc, Zampa and Hazlewood were able to pull things back and only five boundaries came from those final six overs. That recovery, also pointed to scoring getting more difficult again at the older ball, something Kuldeep Yadav and company used masterfully against a despairing Australian batting line-up.

Another of their substitutes, of course, was Jake Fraser-McGurk, he of the powerful bat swing and blazing IPL innings. His time in Australia’s front rank of white ball players starts now.