Alex Doolan is the latest in a long list of Australian batsmen to have struggled to fill the No.3 berth Ricky Ponting made his own for nearly a decade.
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Doolan was part of an Australian line-up which coach Darren Lehmann said was guilty of being "timid" against Pakistan's spinners.
Australia have experimented with eight players in the position since Ponting vacated the pressure slot in 2011 but are no closer to finding a long-term replacement for the former captain.
That number does not include David Warner, who could not open in Chennai due to gastro, James Faulkner, who played as a pinch-hitter, or Ponting, who filled in for an injured Shaun Marsh in Cape Town.
Of the eight, Shane Watson has the best record, with two tons and an average of 41 across 10 games, though he is now viewed as a No.6 in Test cricket to enable him to bowl more overs.
Shaun Marsh is the only other player to have scored a century in that position though injuries and inconsistency have plagued his game since a stunning Test debut in Sri Lanka.
Others who have been tried and dispensed with are Phil Hughes, Usman Khawaja, Ed Cowan and Rob Quiney while Michael Clarke's short stint ended after a golden duck in Mohali last year.
Doolan is in danger of joining that list after a nightmare Test in Dubai where he ran himself out for five and made a five-ball duck. After four Tests he has an average of 24 and has passed 50 only once.
The Tasmanian's tentative play against spin will not have filled selectors with much confidence of his prospects in Abu Dhabi.
But the alternative for selector Rod Marsh is not compelling as Phil Hughes has also struggled against spin.
In Doolan's favour is his century in the tour game, and Clarke's support will also be valued even if the captain is no longer a selector.
"I'm certainly not going to sit here and say that he can be out of form. He just made an unbelievable hundred in the tour game," Clarke said.
"Dools will be fine. He's a very good player. He knows his game really well, he's showed he can bat in these conditions.
"You don't lose class overnight, that's for sure, and I'm confident that come this second Test he'll probably make another hundred."
Lehmann has called for a change in attitude from Australia's batsmen against Pakistan's spinners for the second Test.
"We want to be quite positive where we possibly can but end of the day we didn't get to the stage of being positive because we lost our wickets very quickly in clumps," Lehmann said.
"It's about having that belief in watching the ball, reading the ball off the wicket and playing an aggressive brand. I think we were a little bit timid at stages and we've got to be a little bit more aggressive, I would think.
"We got beaten with straight balls, I think five or six dismissals throughout the game. We have to get better at hitting the straight ball, watching the ball for a start, but they are things the guys will work on."
