Call it the Sam Konstas effect. Or even trickle-down Konstanomics. Emboldened by the teenager’s stunning salvo, Australia’s top-order was back to functioning at full capacity on Boxing Day.

While Pat Cummins conceded after the washed-out Brisbane Test that his side’s numbers five through seven were now expected to do a bulk of their scoring, Australia’s captain expressed his hope more runs would be on the board when that Travis Head-led middle order was called upon for the final two Tests against India.

The switch of the watchful, diligent Nathan McSweeney for the young, brash Konstas not only helped (at least temporarily) neuter the almighty threat of Jasprit Bumrah, his take-down of the right-armer having one of the all-time great Test tours of Australia also had a range of flow-on benefits for the rest of the home side’s batters.

For the first time on home soil in a decade, every member of Australia’s top four passed fifty in an innings. The only other time that has happened since the 2014-15 SCG Test (also against India) was in 2022 against Pakistan on a Rawalpindi road.

Bumrah’s class ensured he came back with a vengeance late in the day, landing the prized blow of Head for a duck to break the left-hander’s dominant run in this series.

But the effect of Konstas’ memorable maiden hand – and Australia’s highest opening partnership since David Warner retired – on Bumrah’s early efforts were notable.

During the Konstas carnage, in which he unveiled a range of strokes the batter himself admitted had more than a touch of naivety about them, six of the 33 balls he faced from Bumrah were half-volleys or full tosses.

Usman Khawaja, from the 70 deliveries he had faced off Bumrah across the first three Tests, had received only two such deliveries. Marnus Labuschagne, also from 70 balls, had gotten the same number (according to data provided by Opta).

Khawaja, whose last four dismissals in the series had been against Bumrah, did not face the star bowler until his fifth over. With his head still spinning at how the young opener was going at him, Bumrah’s third ball to Khawaja was on leg-stump and duly dispatched to the boundary.

Konstas dominated proceedings so much that those three balls were all Khawaja had to face from Bumrah in his new-ball spell. Bumrah got a longer run at him just before the lunch break, but by that point Khawaja was settled and the seam movement was less extravagant.

Even Khawaja’s eventual dismissal – cue-ending an attempted pull off the first ball of Bumrah’s third spell, handing his wicket to him for the fifth time in the series – could reasonably be attributed more to batter error than bowler brilliance.

“I was striking at 70 and I looked over and the youngster was going at 140, making me look bad!” Khawaja told the ABC. 

The 38-year-old admitted he’d had to calm himself down during their opening stand, suggesting it had been like batting with his former opening partner, Warner.

“When someone’s going like that, you actually want to go with him, you want to start playing your shots, because the crowd’s up, he’s going, your heartrate goes up,” said Khawaja.

“But I was just like, ‘No, just keep bating, keep batting, look to score runs but don’t do anything you don’t do normally. If you keep feeding him the strike-rate, he’ll keep going’. 

“I did actually have to calm myself down a little bit. Fortunately, I’ve had a bit of experience with Davey, playing with him my whole life. When you play with someone who’s on a similar tempo to what Konstas was with Davey, you get used to it.”

Australia’s opening partnership was not only their highest in 12 months, it was also their longest-lasting of the series. That then proved beneficial for Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith.

From 10 combined innings in this series coming into Boxing Day, that pair had been in after the 20th over just once – when Smith came to the crease during the 37th over in Adelaide. By contrast, Australia had 89 on the board in quick time when Labuschagne walked in on Thursday morning, and 154 when Smith started his innings in the second session. 

For Labuschagne, urged to lift his intent earlier in this series, there was negligible scoreboard pressure on him. In other words, he could just bat. That does not necessarily make batting against Bumrah any easier, but it undoubtedly eased some pressure.

The star quick was back to his miserly best following the earlier carnage when his second spell continued after the lunch break. Along with Akash Deep, he helped India send down four maidens in a row. 

Labuschagne, who had raced to 12 from as many deliveries before the interval, scored just two from his next 27 balls, and then only 14 from 60. It had little impact on his outlook, with his final-session exit trying to loft Washington Sundar coming after he had begun to score more freely.

Smith, like Khawaja, was able to dodge Bumrah at his most dangerous. Just nine of the 71 balls it took for Australia’s No.4 to reach fifty were bowled by Bumrah. Smith cashed in against India’s spinners attempting to perform a holding role, while he also took down a tiring Mohammed Siraj.

“A lot of credit to the way Sam played. I felt the intent that he showed in the first few overs put us on the back foot,” India assistant coach Abishek Nair said. “But I felt it took a lot of character for our bowlers to stick in there. 

“It wasn’t the easiest conditions to bowl. We felt the conditions are good to bat in. And at times like that, sometimes it’s important to stick to your guns, stick to the plans. 

“I felt, post-lunch, we came back really strong, bowling those maidens, putting the pressure on the opposition. 

“At times like that you are taken by surprise when someone plays a knock like (Konstas’) but I felt we responded really well, and then … towards the end of the day you reap the rewards of everything that you did through the day.”

NRMA Insurance Men’s Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 10 wickets

Third Test: Match drawn

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (vc), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal