Ravichandran Ashwin believes runs will prove to be "gold dust" in the opening Adelaide Test between Australia and India.

After two days, the bowlers have largely got the better of the batsmen. The tourists were all out for 250, although Cheteshwar Pujara made 123, before Australia struggled to 191-7 at stumps on Friday.

But while the remaining Australia batsmen - including Travis Head on an unbeaten 61 - will be looking to kick on, Ashwin similarly wants to improve further.

The India bowler has figures of 3-50, yet he does not believe his side have the upper hand at this stage.

"It's why I was bowling an extra spell after tea as well, to try to make sure that we don't give any more runs away," he told a news conference.

"I see it as neck and neck as far as the game goes right now. Whoever gets the momentum from hereon obviously has the edge in this Test match, so I feel it's extremely well poised.

"Every run is going to be gold dust from here."

Explaining his success in removing Marcus Harris (26), Shaun Marsh (2) and Usman Khawaja (28), Ashwin said: "To be very precise, there is not a lot happening off the straight or fizzing through, nothing like that.

"I was getting drift both ways, in and out, and I was able to control both that drift and get the batsmen holding their feet inside the stump and outside the stump and hence hold them.

"That's how we got Khawaja out and Marsh out as well. That's something that really worked in my favour because of the drift, the ball going away and coming back in.

"It happens in Melbourne, too, so I am backing on that to give me some really good results."