Australia struck early and late in the opening session to restrict India to 72 for two at lunch on the first day of the second test at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.

After the hosts appeared to have overcome an early setback, off-spinner Nathan Lyon removed Cheteshwar Pujara on the stroke of the interval to end a second-wicket partnership of 61 with opener Lokesh Rahul, who was unbeaten on 48.

After India captain Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bat, paceman Mitchell Starc dismissed Abhinav Mukund, a replacement for injured opener Murali Vijay, without scoring in the third over of the day.

Playing his first test in almost six years, Mukund's innings lasted just eight deliveries with the left-handed batsman completely missing a full toss from Starc to be given out leg before wicket.

After starting with an all-pace attack, Australia captain Steve Smith waited eight overs before handing the ball to left-arm spinner Steve O'Keefe, whose 12-wicket haul in Pune helped the tourists open a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.

O'Keefe bowled a tight line to prevent the batsmen from scoring and should have captured Rahul's wicket but Peter Handscomb dropped a low chance to his left at short cover to reprieve the batsman on 30.

Local favourite Rahul played some loose shots during his knock but also entertained the sizeable crowd with some crisply driven boundaries off the fast bowlers.

However, attempted sweep shots against Lyon twice looped in the air but landed safely beyond the reach of Australian fielders.

At the other end, Pujara appeared far more solid in defence and rarely looked troubled during his innings before he got an inside edge onto his pads and this time Handscomb held on to the catch at short leg.

Besides Mikund, India made another change to the side that lost the opener by 333 runs inside three days, with batsman Karun Nair coming in for spin bowling all-rounder Jayant Yadav. Australia retained the same side from the first test.