Head, Smith dine out after being sent in at the Oval

Travis Head's breakthrough overseas century amid a record-breaking stand with Steve Smith whose batting dominance at The Oval remains as enduring as it is remarkable sees Australia in charge of the World Test Championship Final after being challenged early by India.

While fans in England have become used to the new tactics of their men's team whereby 3-327 would be considered an acceptable day one tea-time score, Head served notice he will bring his run-a-ball batting approach to Bazball's backyard, finishing today unbeaten on 146.

Smith will also resume tomorrow morning on 95, and looking to push his score as well as his already extraordinary average at the London venue into triple figures with Australia in a commanding position at 3-327.

Head thrashed 22 boundaries and a six against India's highly rated seam attack (plus 14 overs of largely unthreatening spin) and reached his ton from just 106 deliveries faced which belied the speed at which much of the opening day was played.

That pace wasn't aided by India's glacial over rate, that saw just 51 sent down across the first two sessions and a shortfall of five overs for the day despite an extra half hour's play being added this evening.

Head's hundred was not only his first against India, but his first outside Australia and will go some distance to quelling claims the natural strokemaker's game does not suit conditions where the ball swings and seams.

He provided the perfect foil for Smith who was able to immerse himself in his preferred batting bubble in conditions he knows and understands better than most, and in which he was rarely troubled during an innings that blossomed under the afternoon sun.

The only times Smith seemed agitated were a few occasions shortly after lunch when he took issue with the positioning of the spider cam apparatus that dangled too close for the comfort of his 360-degree vision.

The pair's partnership, which resumes tomorrow unbroken on 251, eclipsed Australia's previous best for the fourth wicket at The Oval set by Don Bradman and Archie Jackson's (243) during the 1930 Ashes.

The all-time fourth-wicket benchmark at the ground is the 266 piled on by England pair Wally Hammond and Stan Worthington against India in 1936.

Apart from the opening hour, played under grey cloud that surely influenced skipper Rohit Sharma's decision at the coin toss to bowl first, India's bowlers struggled to apply sustained pressure on a pitch that played increasingly true after some early variations in bounce.

If anything, The Oval's first-ever Test track prepared for June was sluggish throughout the first half of day one with balls pitched short standing slowly to attention and asking to be hit, while some stayed so low the famous ground's bowling green-esque grass cover seemed entirely apt.

Once the early movement was burned away by the bright sunshine and almost-warm 20C afternoon maximum, Rohit was forced to revert to a series of revised bowling plans, none of which delivered the hoped-for results.

For a while after lunch, it was Shardul Thakur firing balls back-of-a-length into Smith's pads with catching fielders stationed at square leg and mid-wicket in the hope the former Australia captain would miscue a flick in the air.

As befitting a man averaging more than 97 in Test matches at The Oval prior to today's knock, he didn't.

Then, with Head racing towards the 90s and with the surface seemingly quickening up, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami launched a sustained bouncer barrage at the left-hander with fielders deployed in several places on the leg-side boundary.

Head responded by backing away and lifting Shami over slips for four and six off consecutive deliveries, but did experience some discomfort – including a glancing blow to the helmet from a Siraj bouncer – against balls aimed at his body before his century moment arrived.

The shot with which he reached triple figures signalled his frustration at the tactics – a swat to deep backward square against a ball he might well have left alone – but after a low-key celebration of his hard-fought and long-cherished milestone, Head again knuckled down to the business of building a big innings.

In more than 100 Tests played at The Oval since 1880, only one team has lost a game having scored 300 or more after being sent into bat with the outlier being England's 445 in 1998 that paled against Sri Lanka's reply of 591.

However, none of those previous encounters were played in the opening fortnight of an England summer so the relevance of precedent remains to be seen.

Certainly India's decision to bowl first, having opted for a four-pronged pace attack and allrounder Ravindra Jadeja given sole spinner responsibility to the expense of the world's top-ranked Test bowler Ravichandran Ashwin, seemed vindicated when Usman Khawaja fell for a duck.

It had taken Australia 16 deliveries to find their first runs under low cloud and against probing pace bowling, and only six more to surrender their first wicket.

The breakthrough came when Mohammad Siraj produced a peach from over the wicket that had Khawaja feeling for the full length ball, only to feather an edge as it left him late off the green-tinged surface.

The left-hander was not altogether sure he'd made contact despite the spontaneous celebration of India's fielders behind their wicket and their successful bowler, but Warner counselled his opening partner not to burn a review.

For the remainder of the opening hour, Australia mixed watchful defence with the occasional deft counter-punch from Warner as he and Marnus Labuschagne negotiated the new-ball spell.

Following England's blueprint from the 2019 Ashes, Siraj and Mohammed Shami began attacking Warner from around the wicket and zeroed in on the left-hander's front pad but the 36-year-old – who had claimed to be in "superb" net form prior to the Test – was up for the battle.

The first sign Warner was a markedly different proposition to the new-ball bunny who averaged 9.5 from 10 innings in 2019 came in Shami's third over of the morning when he punched him past mid-off for three.

He made good on his pledge to play in his own manner this northern summer when he then flayed Siraj over slips to the fence, followed by another sweetly timed drive for three through mid-on later in the same over.

But amid the steadily growing run rate, there were signs batting conditions were more treacherous than Warner was making them appear.

What the day one track lacked in bounce – as graphically demonstrated when Shami fired in a ball in the 11th over that Warner instinctively swivel-pulled in front of square leg for four – it made up for in its capacity to deliver wildly varying bounce.

Labuschagne became painfully aware of that characteristic early in his innings when a ball from Siraj to which he pushed notionally forward leapt from the surface and rapped him on his top (left) hand, forcing him to relinquish his grip on the bat as he recoiled in pain.

Fears Australia's number three had sustained a serious hand injury inside the first hour's play of their two-month England sojourn were allayed following a thorough medical check, but Labuschagne was understandably wary in defence.

It was only when Shami and Siraj were spelled following the day's first drinks break that Australia's batters were able to gain some momentum.

Labuschagne restored a measure of bruised confidence, finding the boundary for the first time with a clinical on-drive from India's fourth seamer Shardul Thakur who had replaced Siraj at the pavilion end.

However, it was the introduction of Umesh Yadav in place of Shami that provided the first true indication batting at The Oval was going to get easier in coming days.

The 35-year-old paceman copped a pasting from his fellow veteran as Warner spanked a boundary from his first over – a wide half-volley dismissively slapped through point – then another four boundaries from Yadav's next over as the opener surged towards 50.

It seemed the reinvention Warner spoke about in the days leading into the Test Championship decider, and the glowing endorsements of his nets form provided by teammates, was manifest when he unfurled a trademark down-on-one-knee cover drive off Thakur soon after.

However, two balls hence he was on his way in a manner that was true to his promise to keep playing his shots, but doubtless disappointing because it was not a stroke that carried complete conviction.

In aiming a pull shot at a ball that Thakur fired into the opener's right hip, Warner felt the ball brush his glove and watched in near disbelief as it was scooped up by India keeper K. S. Bharat diving neatly to his right.

As he came to grips with the reality an innings just starting flourish was, instead, finished, Warner was approached by his batting partner but waved away Labuschagne's query as to whether the dismissal should be reviewed.

It also meant a session that Australia had slowly and methodically wrested control of after a fraught start slipped back into the balance with a lunch score of 2-73.

That became advantage India when Labuschagne was knocked over by the first ball he faced after lunch, his footwork seemingly left behind at the buffet as he became stuck on the crease and castled by a cracker from Shami that seamed back to take off stump.

At 3-76, Australia's innings hung in the balance as Head joined Smith (then on two) with the first hint of sunlit afternoon uplands appearing over south London.

World Test Championship Final

June 7-11: Australia v India, The Oval

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishan Kishan (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat

Find out everything you need to know for the World Test Championship Final here