Smith also scored a ton at the last Test in Brisbane -- his first since June 2023 -- with the latest his 34th in his 113th match.

The incident occurred at the end of the 10th over on the first day of the Melbourne Test when Kohli bumped the Australia debutant's shoulder, which led to a heated exchange between the two players.

Batting after captain Pat Cummins won the toss on a steamy day, the hosts reached 311-6 by the close in front of more than 87,000 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

In front of a huge crowd on a sweltering morning, the 19-year-old shrugged off a shoulder bump from an irked Virat Kohli and a barrage of invective from paceman Mohammed Siraj on the way to a memorable 60 in 65 balls.

The 19-year-old Konstas will become Australia's youngest Test debutant since Cummins took the field against South Africa at Johannesburg in 2011.

Temperatures are forecast to reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) on Thursday, and the Melbourne Cricket Ground curator said during the week he expected the pitch to offer plenty for the fast bowlers.

Aggressive number five Head is the highest run scorer in the five-match series, plundering centuries at both Adelaide and Brisbane.

Konstas was called up after selectors dumped Nathan McSweeney after just three Tests, with the 19-year-old tasked with fending off Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah alongside an under-performing Usman Khawaja.

While he was dismissed for just 11 in his first innings of the series, Head went on to hit 89, 140 and 152 in his next three outings.

Uncapped opener Sam Konstas wins a call-up for the omitted Nathan McSweeney, while all-rounder Beau Webster and pace duo Sean Abbott and Jhye Richardson are also included in the 15-player group for the Melbourne and Sydney Tests.

In five completed innings so far in Border-Gavaskar series, only once have India managed an opening stand of more than 12 runs.

In a match that has lost almost two days to rain, India have no real hope of winning and are hoping to salvage a draw and head to Melbourne on Boxing Day with the series locked at 1-1.

Bumrah, easily the visitors' star man so far in the series, said it was difficult for the players to come out to Australia and play in such different conditions from what they are used to.

"He's the MVP, isn't he? Most valuable primate," she said on Sunday while commentating for Fox during the second day's play at the Gabba in Brisbane.

Needing 245 to avoid the follow-on, India lost wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant during a stop-start session in which only 6.5 overs were bowled because of three rain delays.

Despite Jasprit Bumrah’s 12th five-wicket haul in Tests for the visitors, the hosts had a field day with the bat.

While the ton was his first in 24 Test innings - the previous having come against England in the Ashes last year - Smith believes he was ticking all the boxes over the past month in the lead up to the series.

Head scored a magnificent 152 and Smith a gritty 101 at the Gabba in Brisbane to put Australia into a strong position to go 2-1 up in the five-Test series.

In the wake of India's 10-wicket thrashing inside three days in the second Test at Adelaide on Sunday, there will be a growing clamour for Shami to be parachuted into Brisbane for the third test against the hosts.

The pink-ball Test in Adelaide between Australia and India saw tempers flare during a high-stakes five-match series with significant World Test Championship implications.