India was reeling at 6-132 at 3.30pm on Thursday afternoon after skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat on the Adelaide surface.

Young’s Nathan Lyon chimed in after lunch with the wicket of Rohit Sharma (37) and Rishab Pant (25).

Sharma was beaten by a change in pace by Lyon, hauling out to debutante Marcus Harris on the square-leg boundary, while Pant was caught behind by Australian captain Tim Paine.

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The wicket of Sharma broke a 45-run partnership between Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara which was slowly building after the visitors lost 4-41 in the first session.

Pat Cummins took the prized scalp of Kohli who was sent packing after Usman Khawaja took a stunning catch in gully reaching far to his left.

New-ball bowlers Josh Hazelwood and Mitchell Starc removed India’s opening batsmen KL Rahul (2) and Murali Vijay (11) to spark early momentum.

In the lead up, Australian selectors dumped Mitch Marsh and decided to add to Australia’s batting depth with the addition of Peter Handscomb.

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The decision means, without Marsh as a pace option to support Starc, Hazelwood and Cummins, more responsibility for Lyon who can expect long spells of bowling during the Australia summer.

"The quicks are going to have to bowl a bit more and we have full faith that Nathan Lyon can do the job in any conditions," Australia captain Tim Paine said.

"He's shown that over the last few years, he bowled a mountain of overs in the UAE and our quicks are fresh so we can cover that."