A succession of handy starts in the early days of a Test career can mean better will follow, but not always.

Steve Waugh, famously, waited nearly four years after his debut for a first Test hundred, at Headingley in 1989, and went on to carve out 31 more.

Whereas in 1991, a young Mark Ramprakash got to scores of 19 or better, facing 48 balls or more, in every one of his first nine Test innings for England against the mighty West Indies. Most thought this would be the platform for something bigger, but it actually turned out to be more or less his level: A series average of 23.33 became a career mark of 27.32 over 52 matches.

That, then, is the selectors’ poser for Harris: Has he found a way to quieten the noise in his head once he gets going in a major match, where plenty of eyes will be peeled to see how far he can go?

Or are they better off going with a less-known quantity against India’s seamers, such as wunderkind Sam Konstas, Cameron Bancroft or Nathan McSweeney. With only a handful of runs to defend, Bumrah still made life mightily awkward for New Zealand’s top order before they secured victory in Bengaluru. Harris is trying not to think too much about it all.

“Probably in the past, it’s weighed on my mind a lot more than what it is at the moment,” he said earlier this month. “I’m just sort of playing it as it comes at me. I think last year was a good lesson for that. I’ll just keep playing whatever I’m playing and trying to put some runs on the board.

“I think it’s always helpful if you get runs early in the season, to sort of kick-start your season a little bit. But, yeah, just focus on what I’m doing here.”

Harris’ platform on Sunday helped Victoria get to 9-259 after being sent in by the Blues on a juicy MCG surface, despite the best efforts of Abbott (4-50) in particular.

In Brisbane, South Australia’s Henry Hunt (130 not out) batted through the whole of day one at Allan Border Field to get the SACAs to 7-289. Tasmania had reached 5-158 against Western Australia in Perth when rain interrupted play.