“It’s great to have them in the squad,” Morkel said of Prasidh and the other specialist fast bowler in the squad, Harshit Rana. “I think they add a lot of variety to their attack, especially Harshit, who bowls at a good pace, finds a way to get some bounce out of the surface as well.

“It’s their first tour, Prasidh had a bit of experience with India. A tour where he had some playing time, but for Harshit it’s a bit unknown. My message to him was: when I toured here my first time, playing in Australia, an intimidating place, to listen to the stories, to follow their advice. But for me it’s just staying in your own bubble and having those experiences, working them out yourself.

“(Reddy) is one of the young guys we mentioned, he’s got that kind of hitting ability, all-around ability. He’s going to be a guy who can hold that one end first. He hits the bat a little bit harder than you think. So in these types of conditions where there may be a bit of seam movement up front, he will be a very accurate bowler from wicket to wicket a great opportunity for him to hold on to that all-rounder spot.

“Every team in the world always wanted the all-rounder to take the burden off your fast bowlers, just to give them some extra breathing time. So how we use him, how Jasprit is going to use him, with maybe the spinner, to give himself, who as the other fast players will be, time to catch their breath will be important.

Indian batting could also depend on the arrival of some newer players if Devdutt Padikkal makes it to the third spot and Dhruv Jurel to the sixth spot.

“It will be a great learning experience for these guys,” Morkel said. “They’re young guys who can come to the fore against a quality Test bowling pack. Australia won’t bowl you many bad balls but when you say that, you know, there’s good leadership within the group that can help and calm the nerves can calm that down so I think as a group we’re all excited about the challenge, we know what’s coming, we know the wicket is going to be fast, it’s going to be resilient, and it’s now up to the individual to their game plans formulate and put themselves into a mental kind of battle state that it will be tough cricket over the next 43 days.

India are waiting for Gill’s fitness

“Shubman is improving every day, obviously took a nasty hit in the mock game, in the squad game. I think it’s going to be a day-to-day process with him, fingers crossed for that improvement, but I think they’ll wait (and not) call him until the morning of the (match).”

Gill attended training on Wednesday, but that was the extent of his participation, while the rest of the squad got a full workout under the sun. He dated Rishabh Pant for a while and then left. The chances of him playing in Perth in two days are still slim. Padikkal, who has now been added to the squad after being asked to stay in Australia after his stint with the India A team, is starting to develop into a backup No. 3 batsman.