13th over: Australia 46-1 (Head 16, Labuschagne 0) Ebadot Hossein continues and gets some impressive bounce out of the Darwin surface, Litton Das taking the ball above his head behind the sticks. Head gets a single and Marnus is happy to dot out the rest of the over as he gets himself acquainted.

12th over: Australia 45-1 (Head 15, Labuschagne 0) Here’s Marnus with a fair bit of heat on him despite averaging nigh on 45 in Test cricket, he hasn’t reached the dizzy heights of his first couple of years in Tests and there’s a feeling he needs to properly arrest a slump. He leaves his first two balls from Mahmud but there’s none of the ‘No Run’ histrionics of peak Labuschagne. Wicket maiden from Hasan Mahmud who has impressed in the first hour.

11th over: Australia 45-0 (Head 15, Weatherald 23) Weatherald is riding his luck, an inside edge squirts back past his stumps and Hossein has is head in his hands. A single brings Head on strike and he pulls dismissively for four, his first boundary since the second ball of the game.

10th over: Australia 35-0 (Head 10, Weatherald 18) Weatherald wafts and misses outside off stump for the fourth or fifth time already this morning. Crack! He doesn’t miss the next though and there’s a pistol crack noise around the ground as he smashes a four through cover point.

9th over: Australia 31-0 (Head 10, Weatherald 10) Hossein cuts Head in half with consecutive deliveries pitched back of a length. He’s bustling in and looks well up for the fight. Close! Head is pinned on the knee roll and Bangladesh like the look of this… they send it upstairs… NOT OUT – missing off stump and the visitors lose a review. Brilliant and threatening first over from Ebadot Hossein though, a maiden.

8th over: Australia 31-0 (Head 10, Weatherald 10) Weatherald is beaten by Mahmud but settles his nerves the next ball with a compact off drive for four. Edabdot Hossein is being summoned for an early bowl, he got some tap in the warm up game…

7th over: Australia 23-0 (Head 9, Weatherald 7) Taskin is around the wicket and zoning in on the stumps and pads. He’s flicked away a couple of times in the over and decides to plug that gap with a leg slip. Don’t mind that at all.

6th over: Australia 19-0 (Head 8, Weatherald 4) Bangladesh have started well with the ball, another probing over from Mahmud, Weatherald leaves a ball that will have got his ticker fluttering as it passed over the stumps by this much. A full ball to finish hits the batter on the boot but it was heading down leg and the appeal is stifled.

5th over: Australia 18-0 (Head 7, Weatherald 4) Taskin with more late movement, jagging a ball back into Weatherald’s knee roll, a keen appeal but it was going over and Umpire Dharmasena is rightly unmoved. The bowler goes full, trying to get through Weatherald in a similar way to how England had some success against him in the Ashes - with him falling over to the off side - but the radar is awry and it slides away for four byes.

4th over: Australia 13-0 (Head 7, Weatherald 4) Hasan Mahmud nearly pockets Head as a meaty leading edge loops over the bowler but short of mid off. The bowler then beats Weatherald all ends up with a ripper that seams back and looks like it skimmed the off bail. Weahterald aims a booming drive at the final ball but connects only with hot and humid Darwin air.

3rd over: Australia 12-0 (Head 6, Weatherald 4) Tidy over from Taskin who lands it on a postage stamp for five in a row before blotting his copy book ever so slightly with a drift onto the pads that Head whips to leg for a single.

2nd over: Australia 11-0 (Head 5, Weatherald 4) Hasan Mahmud shares the new nut, he took four wickets in the warm up match against the CA XI and he looks dangerous here early on. Weatherald gets off the mark with a thick edge for four wide of the cordon and is then beaten by an absolute doozy that shapes in and nips away late. Play that! Ricky Ponting thinks Weatherald is standing taller in his crease but there are still plenty of moving parts, including a backlift that bobs back and forth like a souped up maneki-neko. Will the technical adjustments bring him luck and prosperity?

1st over: Australia 4-0 (Head 4, Weatherald 0) Taskin Ahmed starts with the ball for Bangladesh with Travis Head on strike. The first ball is on the moolah and respected by Head with a forward defence. Ah, that didn’t last long. Taskin pushes the next one a bit too full and a bit too wide and it is duly lashed through the covers for four by the great moustachioed one. Taskin is back on task for the rest of the over though, finding a good spot on off stump with a bit of nip back into the left handed Head off the pitch. Bangladesh need a couple of early scalps to get into this match.

The players line up and the anthems are duly dusted off. Righto, lets do this.

As a side note, David Warner has arrived in Darwin dressed as a pocket sized Mick Dundee. “Call that a pull shot? This is a pull shot”

Teams:

Australia: Travis Head, Jake Weatherald, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Beau Webster, Pat Cummins (capt), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

Bangladesh: Tanzid Hasan, Shadman Islam, Mominul Haque, Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Mushfiqur Rahim, Litton Das (wk), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain, Hasan Mahmud

An early look at Australia’s batting card this morning then, local boy Jake Weatherald will be feeling the nerves as he attempts to cement his place at the top of the order. Marnus will also be looking to get some runs under his belt to quieten a few grumblings and rumblings about his output in Test cricket of late.

The mercury is set to touch 31 degrees in Darwin today with a clammy 80 per cent humidity. The pitch looks true albeit there might be a touch of moisture and movement for Bangladesh’s bowlers to exploit early on. Skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto says as much at the toss and says he is “honoured and excited” to be leading his side in a Test series in Australia.