Ed Cowan and Usman Khawaja were at the crease on 33 and 20 respectively after captain and opening batsman David Warner was out for just two in the fourth ball of the day bowled by Abhimanyu Mithun.
The home side have faced 15 overs so far at the Manuka Oval. Earlier, Virat Kohli smashed a scintillating 132 from just 171 balls to single-handedly take India to 269 from 79.1 overs.
Another Indian to have done his chances no harm for the first Test starting on December 26 was medium-pacer Abhimanyu Mithun who claimed Warner in his very first over as the home side took the lunch at six for one.
But for Kohli, the other Indian batsmen failed, including skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni who holed out to mid-on after scratching together three runs from 12 balls as Indians were dismissed for 269 about half an hour before lunch break.
Left-arm spinner Jon Holland reaped the maximum reward from the morning session to finish with six for 70, an unlikely hero since pace and swing was expected to cause trouble to the Indians.
Impressive medium-fast bowler Peter George set the rot in by dismissing overnight batsman Rohit Sharma (47) on a mistimed hook at fine leg but not before the young Indian batsman had put on 101 runs for the fifth wicket with Kohli.
Holland then took over, dismissing Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin (4), Kohli, Zaheer Khan (0) and Abhimanyu Mithun (0) for morning figures of five for 33 from 9.1 overs.