New captain Steve Smith is manning the barricades at the Gabba.
His first runs as skipper sparkled in dimming light on the second evening of the Brisbane Test and Australia need a captain's knock from him to continue their counter-attack.
Smith has not been dismissed in the series so far and he looms as the key wicket for India on day three.
He was 65 not out when bad light stopped play with the home side 4-221, trailing India's first innings total by 187. Mitchell Marsh, who came out to bat at No.6 despite nursing a strained hamstring, is on seven.
While the other Australian batsmen threw away starts, Smith played the offspin of Ravi Ashwin with supreme confidence, dancing down the track to hit him for two sixes in an over.
Australia's fightback, after a horrible and energy-sapping opening day, was inspired by the maiden five-wicket haul of the young paceman who might one day lead Smith's attack, Josh Hazlewood.
The physio room at the team hotel resembled a casualty ward on Wednesday night and Hazlewood received treatment to avoid a recurrence of the full-body cramps that stopped his long limbs from functioning in the oppressive heat.
He bowled beautifully in the humid conditions to finish with 5-68, his subtle movement through the air accounting for Ajinkya Rahane and his pace for MS Dhoni.
The tourists lost their last six wickets for 97 and were bowled out for 408 by lunch. Ashwin still felt India was in front in the game after two days. "If we can have a good first session tomorrow I think we will have our noses in front," he said. "If it was a slightly different wicket with more footmarks I would fancy myself more but I still fancy myself, I still kept throwing the ball up and I still fancy to get him [Smith] out tomorrow morning. It's not about Steve Smith or any names we need to take out, it's just that we need a couple of wickets tomorrow morning."
The Test continued to rattle on at a hectic pace on day two.
David Warner started the Australian innings in the same attacking vein that brought twin centuries in Adelaide and Ishant Sharma continued with his dubious around the wicket method to him.
It didn't work. Warner pounced on anything over-pitched and rattled to 29 in 28 balls. An awkward attempt to pull Yadav ended with a top-edge that ballooned over the slips and was caught by Ashwin.
Chris Rogers notched his first Test half-century since February. Forty of his runs flowed in boundaries, none more emphatic than the cut shot slashed over gully off a Umesh Yadav no-ball.
But the veteran opener perished on the stroke of tea for 55, tickling a ball from Yadav down the leg side to Dhoni.
While Rogers is yet to seal his passage to England next year, Shane Watson's grip on the No.3 spot loosened when he squandered another start.
With fellow all-rounder Marsh hamstrung, Watson's 14.4 tight overs for the wicket of Rohit Sharma were important. But if he is to retain his position as a top order batsman he will have to improve on his scores of 14, 33 and 25 in the series so far. This time he middled a catch to Shikhar Dhawan at mid-off and had to put up with a screaming send-off from Virat Kohli, who was docked 30 per cent of his match fee in Adelaide for remonstrating with one of the Australian batsmen.
Shaun Marsh had a chance to make India pay for an inexplicable dropped catch when he was on 31. Rahane stood under the ball at leg gully for an eternity then let it slip through his fingers. But Marsh, who dropped Indian century-maker Murali Vijay twice, couldn't cash in, driving at Varun Aaron in his next over and edging to the slips where Ashwin took a sharp catch when he had added just one more run.
Earlier, India were embodied by the unflinching figure of captain Dhoni, who wore a blow on the arm from a Hazlewood bouncer and then climbed into the bowling of Mitchell Starc, who was down on pace and confidence.
