India won the Day I exchanges of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, but that doesn’t give them the licence to be reckless, Jasprit Bumrah said after the day’s play on Saturday.

A disciplined bowling performance helped India bundle Australia out for a paltry 195. In reply, India finished the day on 36/1, losing Mayank Agarwal’s wicket.

India’s approach under stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane was impressive as they did not carry the baggage of an embarrassing loss from the first Test in Adelaide.

Rahane was immaculate with his use of bowlers and field placements.

“We aren’t looking too far ahead. We just need to take one session at a time. We don’t want to be conservative in our mindset, we are looking to be positive and will try to control the controllable and be in that space. It’s about not being reckless but playing with a lot of confidence. That’s the way forward for us,” Bumrah, the most successful bowler of the day, said during a virtual media conference.

Besides Bumrah (4/56), Ravichandran Ashwin (3/35) too was among wickets. Off-spinner Ashwin made good use of the moisture on the pitch, once again accounting for rival batting mainstay Steve Smith, who couldn’t even open his account on this occasion.

Even Mohammed Siraj, coming in place of Mohammed Shami, was impressive on debut.

“We just wanted to help each other and tried to create pressure from both ends. That was our goal,” Bumrah said. “Ash bowled brilliantly, Siraj also bowled really well, so we’re very happy with the effort that was put in.

“Because of the pressure we built from both ends, we could create opportunities which we utilised.”

In the last hour of the day, despite losing Mayank in the very first over of their innings, India did look fairly confident in dealing with the challenge of the Australian attack. Debutant Shubman Gill (28 batting) and Cheteshwar Pujara (7 batting) did not step back and played their shots whenever there was an opportunity.

Batting last would not be easy on the MCG track, which underlines India’s need to put up a sizeable first-innings total.

Bumrah, however, insisted his team is “trying to be in the present”.

“We’re trying to focus on the things we have on hand, not on what happened in previous matches. The first session on Sunday will be key for us as we need to analyse what we can do to score enough runs.

“Nonetheless, we’re just trying to be in the present and focusing on the things we can have an influence on. That’s the team’s goal now,” he said.