“He’s got a bit of a Midas touch,” Cummins said of Head’s bowling at the presentation. “I’ll give the coach credit for that one [bringing him on]. Also, we were a bit behind on the over rate, so we thought, get Trav in there, [he] might get a breakthrough and help us out with some overs.”

Head referenced his lean returns with the bat in this Test, where he made 0 and 1, having scored centuries in Adelaide and Brisbane when asked about his key contribution.

“I’ve had four-and-a-half days off, didn’t feature, thought I’d watch the boys bat this week,” he told the host broadcaster. “And nice to contribute. I got told I was bowling [at tea], wasn’t too pleased about things. We are a pretty relaxed group, [we] don’t change too much, we knew what we had to do. Pat and Ronnie [head coach Andrew McDonald] come up with the plans, had a chat and we were able to go out and execute it.

“It [the Test] ebbed and flowed throughout the five days and [was] probably one of the best Test matches I’ve been involved in. No matter what the result was going to be, two teams went at it pretty hard. There were moments where both teams stepped up, moments where they fought and it’s just nice we’ve been able to come out with the win. It’s been a long five days.”

When asked about plans for Pant specifically, Head joked. “Bowl a rank [long hop] and have everyone on the fence. I just threw them down there, see what happens and it turned our way.”

There was also an explanation from Cummins of Head’s wicket celebration, which referred to an on-going joke about putting his spinning finger in a glass of ice.

Starc bowled superbly on the final day, claiming the wicket of Virat Kohli, and Cummins was upbeat that he would be available for the final Test.

“I’m pretty confident he’ll be fine,” Cummins said. “We’ll reassess in a couple of days. He’s managing a couple of sore bits, mainly one sore bit on his ribs or something. But he’s a warrior, he gets through, his pace didn’t drop off, he didn’t even contemplate not being an option to bowl. So other than being in pain, he’s fully fit and available.”

Should Starc not be right, it would bring Jhye Richardson into contention for a recall. Richardson, who played his last Test in the 2021-22 Ashes, was released from the squad on Monday so he could feature for Perth Scorchers against Adelaide Strikers on New Year’s Eve and will then link back up in Sydney on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Marsh has made 73 runs at 10.42 in the four Tests alongside claiming three wickets at 46.33 with all those coming in Perth. Uncapped allrounder Beau Webster is part of the squad should the selectors opt to make a change.

“It’s [Pant’s dismissal] just happened, there hasn’t been any discussion about today,” Rohit said. “Obviously we’ve lost the game, everybody is disappointed about how things panned out … But again look, Rishabh Pant obviously he needs to understand what is required from himself.

“More than anyone of us telling him, it’s about him understanding and figuring out what’s the right way to go about it. In the past, he has given us lot of success doing what he does. As a captain, there’s a kind of mixed reaction to that.”

“Sometimes you want to back that thought of him playing the way he plays, sometimes when things don’t look good, it frustrates everyone. That is what it is, that’s the reality. It’s the success and failure – need to be balanced about it. As captain it’s hard to have conversation when it has given him a lot of success as well. But it’s about him figuring out what is the right way to do things, it’s about situations as well. Certain situations of the game, if there’s a risk percentage, do you want to take that risk? Do you want to let the opposition come back into the game? Those are the things he need to figure out himself.”

“I’ve known Rishabh for a long time, understand his cricket as well … In terms of conversations, no way I can say I’ve not had a chat with him or he doesn’t understand what the term expects. He understands that. But things that he does gives him results as well, just the fine line between telling him not to do those things or telling him to do those things.”

Australia 474 (Smith 140, Labuschagne 72, Bumrah 4-99) and 234 (Labuschagne 70, Bumrah 5-57) beat India 369 (Reddy 114, Jaiswal 82, Boland 3-57) and 155 (Jaiswal 84, Cummins 3-28, Boland 3-39) by 184 runs

After India had slid to 33 for 3, Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant added 88 in 32 overs to take India into the final session with seven wickets in hand, but Travis Head burgled a breakthrough and Australia seized their moment as India lost 7 for 34. The quick bowlers were immense, Mitchell Starc bowling in the mid-140kph region despite a back niggle, while Cummins and Boland added further chapters to previous MCG heroics.

There was a dose of controversy, too, when Jaiswal’s rearguard was ended via the DRS after he gloved a pull against Cummins. Snicko did not register anything, but third umpire Sharfuddoula ruled he had seen a clear a deflection, which matched what was shown on TV. Jaiswal appeared to know he had hit it but spoke with the umpires on the way off. It meant India’s lower order had 21 overs to survive and it proved too much.

A new attendance record for a Test match in Australia has been set with more than 350,700 passing through the gates at the MCG across the five days of the fourth Test between Australia and India, surpassing the previous mark of 350,534 set in 1937.

Cricket Australia confirmed on Monday that 51,371 had already come in for the first session of the fifth day, with more to follow later in the afternoon.

The crowds have been absolutely extraordinary for this Test match with daily tallies of 87,242, 85,147, 83,073, 43,867 and 51,371 and counting. A day five crowd exceeding day four is unheard of with the Melbourne Cricket Club, who run the MCG, underestimating the number on day five.

They opened Yarra Park outside the ground for general public parking on day five, which is a rarity. But they only had one gate open and it caused a significant traffic choke point prior to play with a number of fans late to get into the ground.

The record numbers follow the huge crowds India attracted at the MCG at the 2022 T20 World Cup when 90,293 saw India play Pakistan and 82,507 watched India play Zimbabwe.

“All four innings [cost us]” Masood said. “We can only look at ourselves. You’re going to make mistakes over several days, but you need to have a cushion. I thought when it came to a time when we could get that cushion with the bat, first and third innings, or whether that was with the ball when we had them eight down on two occasions. We didn’t have that cushion, and then you get partnerships like Bosch’s innings and Rabada and Jansen, and you don’t have enough of a cushion to retain a winning position.”

“I don’t think it’s a quality issue. The quality is there, and we’ve seen it at various points. To be a top team, to be in South Africa’s place, to play a WTC final, these are the things where you have to be ruthless.

“Sometimes you learn the hard way. You can’t use it as an excuse but the more we play Test cricket, the more people get into sync. A lot of the players were playing for the first time in these conditions. It can be a really hard lesson where you feel like you’ve got the other team under pressure, but you still need to finish the job.

“It can also feel like we’ve got a really good partnership with Saud [Shakeel] and Babar [Azam], or Kamran [Ghulam] and [Mohammad] Rizwan, or me and Saim [Ayub] in both innings and you feel that you can take them on and have a great score. You’re never set in these conditions whether with the bat or the ball. We’re learning the hard way through a defeat, but the challenge is that we have to respond to this and make sure once we get into winning positions, we must make sure we win the game rather than bring the other team back into it.”

“The message is clear, age is just a number,” Masood said. “The disappointing thing is a performance like that should be on the winning side. I also thought Saud Shakeel’s innings [was excellent] – if we had batted a bit better with him – he would have got a hundred. Those two performances deserved to be on the winning side, and unfortunately they’re not.”

Afghanistan 515 for 3 (Rahmat 234, Shahidi 179*, Muzarabani 1-52) trail Zimbabwe 586 by 71 runs

Shahidi was still batting on 179 while Afzar Zazai was in sights of his maiden Test half-century, finishing unbeaten on 46 as the pair added an unbroken 87 for the fourth wicket.

Both Nyamhuri and Blessing Muzarabani got seam movement – and at times even extra bounce – but Shahidi and new batter Afsar Zazai remained watchful. Each time the line was wide, neither batter shied away from lofting or slashing at the ball. Shahidi reached 150 in the 131st over, when he clipped Nyamhuri wide of fine leg. Largely, both quicks kept it tight.

The first boundary of the day came only in the 137th over. Trevor Gwandu angled one across to Shahidi, who played a lovely drive to bisect cover and mid-off. Thereafter, it was Zazai who kept finding the boundary, while Shahidi looked much calmer at the other end.

Three overs later, Zazai hit his first boundary through midwicket when Sean Williams pitched one short. In the 141st over, Zazai threw his bat at a full and wide one outside off from Gwandu, only for the ball to fly for four over gully. After two overs, Zazai cut Gwandu for another boundary just after his partnership with Shahidi had crossed fifty.

Zazai picked up his only six by pulling Williams over square leg. Sensing he was picking up pace, Zimbabwe slowed things down through Muzarabani, Brandon Mavuta and Brian Bennett. Afghanistan managed only 14 runs from the next seven overs, and that ended the morning session.

Shahidi drove the second delivery after lunch for four to deep extra cover, but only two overs were possible in the afternoon. Seeing ominous grey clouds form, the umpires stopped play at 12:53pm sensing a heavy downpour, which arrived soon.

The rain eased an hour later with the ground staff starting to peel the covers off. But that effort proved futile with another downpour starting. That spell of rain was relentless and stumps were called at 4:35pm.