Without Steven Smith and David Warner, the Australian batting appears fragile, but not as inexperienced as the line-up which figured in the opening Test of the 1977-78 series at Brisbane. Australia, under recalled Bob Simpson, had three debutant batsmen — Paul Hibbert, David Ogilvie, Peter Toohey. Leg-spinner Tony Mann, wicketkeeper Steve Rixon and fast bowler Wayne Clark too made their debuts.

Of the several rookie batsmen, Toohey emerged the most succesful and finished the five-Test series with five half centuries. He contributed to that 3-2 series win in no small measure and it's the Toohey-like batsman that Australia need to help them pass their biggest examination in recent years. For an eyewitness account on the then 23-year-old Toohey, I called Karsan Ghavri, who bowled to him. Ghavri felt he was the most effective of the young opposition batsmen.