On his first day in Test cricket, Will Pucovski was up against not only a bowling attack that had its tail up, but also the ghosts of concussion that keep haunting him.

In the end though, the 22-year-old debutant was happy with how he handled the challenges though he accepted that facing Ravichandran Ashwin was a new experience for him.

“Bounced non-stop” in all forms of cricket so far, Pucovski knew India would unleash a barrage of short-pitched stuff at him at the SCG. But the young opener, who missed the first two Tests because of concussion, overcame the hurdles and also had a bit of luck as he recorded a half-century on Test debut.

Pucovski made 62 before being trapped leg-before by Navdeep Saini, the other debutant in the Test.

“I’ve been bounced non-stop in all cricket I’ve played, just with the history of concussions. I knew India would come at me pretty hard with it (bouncers) and I felt like I handled it well at times and probably just went out of my bubble at other times.

“But a lot of that comes down to the excitement of your first game and just making sure you get that first one out of the way and then, hopefully, I can roll on and improve from my experience today.

“I thought I was going to be ridiculously nervous, but it wasn’t that bad in the end.” Pucovski said at a virtual media conference, facilitated by Sony Pictures Sports Network, after the day’s play.

Pucovski did a decent job against the short delivery, though Mohammed Siraj should have had him when he top-edged an attempted pull only for Rishabh Pant to grass it. But more than Siraj or the other Indian quicks, tackling spinner Ashwin seemed to be a whole new experience for the youngster.

“Obviously, (Jasprit) Bumrah has his unique action, but Ashwin with his variations and how he uses the seam was a different experience for me,” Pucovski said.

“His subtle variations were something that I hadn’t really experienced before, so that was quite challenging.”

Ashwin too could have got Pucovski but Pant dropped that regulation catch too.

Pucovski felt that the presence of Marnus Labuschagne at the other end helped.

“Marnus has been amazing over the last couple of years, so I was just feeding off his experience a little bit,” the youngster said.