India won the toss on a scorching morning at the Adelaide Oval and elected to bat first in the opening Test of the four-match series with Australia on Thursday.
Kohli, the No.1 batsman in the world, has scored just 49 runs in his past six test innings against Australia.
The India number three battled a hamstring strain late in the day but was a rock even as his partners crumbled around him, pushing India to 250 for nine at the close with a brutal assault on the second new ball.
Batting after Kohli won the toss, the visitors crumbled in a disastrous morning session under a pace barrage before digging in later in the day with Pujara and Ravi Ashwin (25 off 76 balls) staging a fightback as the bowlers exhausted.
Spin king Lyon had 2-51 and Hazlewood 2-28 with Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins claiming one wicket apiece.
"We got the wickets the way we thought we might get the wickets", he told the Seven Network. It's nice when they do stick, ' said Khawaja.
More news: Top Huawei executive detained in Canada, angering ChinaOpeners KL Rahul and Murali Vijay fell into a similar trap, while vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane's dismissal was among the worst, slashing at a wide Josh Hazlewood delivery.
In their first home Test since the ball-tampering scandal in March, Australia took four wickets before lunch with the batsmen guilty of playing at deliveries they would have been better off leaving alone.
Virat Kohli was dismissed for just three by a sensational catch from Usman Khawaja, before Cheteshwar Pujara struck a defiant century in an Adelaide Oval furnace to rescue India.
On Tuesday, the brother of Australia batsman Usman Khawaja was taken into custody by counter-terrorism police investigating the discovery in August of a laptop computer containing a fake terrorist hit-list. Rahane miscued yet another drive, this time to Handscomb at second slip.
Pujara anchored vital partnerships with young wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant and spinner Ravichandran Ashwin before completing his century with a flick off his pads after scoring his 5,000th run in tests.
When Lyon stuck to the same channels, Rohit went after him with another ugly slog sweep - a ball after the six - and top-edged down the throat of the fielder.
