It has been a tour of polygraphic variation for India’s Test team. Down and out to begin in Perth, becoming ascendant by the end. Back to the ­bottom in Adelaide, dragging themselves out of trouble in Brisbane to finish the draw there on a high. But starting the fourth Test in Melbourne, right in the series at 1-1, was the first time the Indians have looked completely at a loss.

It’s not that nobody has ever batted aggressively in Tests. Gilbert Jessop, David Hookes, Sanath Jayasuriya, Rishabh Pant, most of England’s ­current lineup – plenty have had their shot. It’s not that nobody has played a scoop shot to Jasprit Bumrah in a Test – ask Joe Root, who soon found it didn’t work out so well.

Related: Teen tearaway Sam Konstas rewrites red ball cricket recipe in fearless Boxing Day debut

What is unique with Sam Konstas is a combination of factors: to be on debut, in front of a full MCG, facing a world-leading fast bowler whose series so far reads 21 wickets at 10, while at an age two years short of being able to buy a whiskey sour in Kentucky, and still having the stones to play that shot from the 11th ball of your Test career. Then when it fails, play it again. And when that fails, again. And again. And again, as it begins to succeed.

Perhaps that is the genius in ­picking a 19-year-old: less about courage, more about that spongy pre-frontal cortex, home to an as‑yet undeveloped sense of risk. Perhaps only a teenager would be game to take on that situation. Perhaps only a teenager would be forgiven if it had failed. Or perhaps the tactic made sense. Bumrah started the day with as good a first over as you’ll see. At pace, the ball moving outrageously off the seam to beat Konstas on the outside edge: once, twice, thrice, whatever the word is for four times.

So Konstas might have reasoned that he could keep poking around like Nathan McSweeney and wait to suffer the same fate, or he could try the opposite and see if the sisters of myth had something else in mind for him. Meanwhile, somewhere in the Big Bash lumping runs from fluorescent adversaries, McSweeney might right now be wondering if he should have tried the same thing.

It was never perfect, but that’s what drove India mad. Had somebody flawlessly timed those shots, they would have had to doff a cap. But the first attempt saw a ball clear the off bail. The second was too wide for the shot. The third made contact but wasn’t clean, a miscue trickled to the rope. The fourth and fifth took recalibration halfway down. Konstas guessed that Bumrah would target the stumps, and was ready, but had to adjust to the line, shifting his target region from fine leg to deep third by moving his wrists to swap the scoop into reverse. Both were perilous.

So all of those moments frustrated India. Bumrah started with a smile that said he had Konstas’s measure, and ended with a smile that said he wasn’t sure what more he could do. Others were less sanguine, ­Mohammed Siraj getting verbal after Konstas charged him and hit a ball back that struck the bowler. While fielding that ball next to Konstas, Virat Kohli gave him a stern glare that was ignored. At the end of the over, Kohli walked the length of the pitch directly at Konstas and made ­forceful contact shoulder to shoulder, a collision that will be examined ­endlessly by a million self-appointed advocates.

It seemed like it was not just ­audacity bothering the Indian ­players, but the fact that Konstas had got away with it, offending some sense of justice in the way that cricket’s luck is meted out. A few risky shots is one thing, 50 at a run a ball something else. By the time he was out lbw to spin, Konstas had singlehandedly lifted Bumrah’s tour average from 10.9 to 12.71. He had derailed the quick’s opening spell and India’s concentration. In the ­session and a half that followed, India conceded half-centuries to each of Australia’s top four.

Of course, Bumrah being Bumrah, he later had a couple of spells yielding two wickets for 10, and India got ­Australia six down late in the day. But by then the horse had not only bolted, it had founded an underground ­resistance movement to come back for the rest of the herd. A score north of 300 on this ­Melbourne pitch already has Australia right on top, with Smith to resume on 68 and Australia’s capable lower order for company.

Inevitably, Marnus Labuschagne, out for 72, will be chastised for another unconverted fifty. Konstas with 60 will be praised for setting the tone, taking the initiative. It won’t always be this easy: as his career ­continues he will get little patience when busts intersperse the booms. See English infuriation with the ­similarly built Zak Crawley. But then, Konstas probably won’t always play this way. It was a specific approach for a specific day.

That day happens to be his first, and people remember debuts. So it’s a day that he will always have: at 10am, learning with the toss that he was about to bat. At 10.28am, racing to the middle ahead of Khawaja to examine the pitch. And well before lunch, done for the day, but already snapping ­selfies in the crowd, ­having become for the moment a new national cricket hero. The moment might not last, but right now it belongs to Sam Konstas.