It proved slow going as he and Mayank Agarwal rode their luck, with Pujara surviving again when a thick edge off Starc flew past Nathan Lyon's outstretched arm.
"For someone like Will, he has been hearing that for a couple of years and scoring two double centuries, back-to-back (in the Sheffield Shield) he can handle that pretty well," he said from Adelaide.
Cummins will line-up in Adelaide next week for the opening Test having not played red-ball cricket for 11 months -- his longest gap since his Test debut in 2011.