The battle between Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Babar Azam promises to be entertaining.

The visitors reduced the lead to 355 runs on day two, but Australia is still in the driver’s seat thanks to the late wicket of Pakistan captain Shan Masood.

FOLLOW all the key talking points from day three below.

DAY TWO RECAP: MARSH FALLS SHORT OF TON, PAKISTAN FIGHTS

DAY 3 LIVE

with Tim Michell

3.24PM: LUNCH — PAKISTAN 6-203

A chaotic start and finish to the first session of day three.

After a run out chance on the first ball of play, the last 40 minutes of the session yielded three wickets to leave Pakistan on the ropes.

Saud Shakeel and Salman Ali Agha have a huge job to keep Australia’s bowlers at bay with only the bowlers left after this pair.

The new ball is due in two overs as well.

3.12PM: SARFARAZ SKITTLED

Mitch Starc has gone through Sarfaraz Ahmed’s defence with a brilliant in-swinger just before lunch.

With the new ball coming just after lunch, Pat Cummins might have to think seriously about whether he wants to enforce the follow on with Pakistan 6-195.

That does seem unlikely though with the bowlers set to get through more than 80 overs in the first innings.

“They have resisted really well…but you get the sense they are just starting to crumble,” says Mike Hussey on Fox Cricket.

3.07PM: IMAM UL-HAQ STUMPED

Imam-ul-Haq worked so hard for 198 balls, only to throw his innings away just before lunch.

The Pakistan opener tries to go after Nathan Lyon, who beats him in flight and pulls back his speed, allowing Alex Carey to complete a simple stumping.

“Perhaps a loss in concentration so close to lunch,” says Mike Hussey on Fox Cricket.

Wasim Akram adds: “There was no need for that shot.”

Pakistan has been resolute for much of the 75 overs but at 5-192 is now in a serious spot of bother.

Nathan Lyon has 498 Test wickets.

2.45PM: MARSH GETS THE KEY WICKET

It just had to be Mitch Marsh.

The WA crowd roars as their hometown favourite removes Babar Azam for 21, caught behind by Alex Carey.

It was a strange shot by Babar, who poked outside off stump without any real conviction and presented Carey with an easy catch.

“There was no commitment to this shot from Babar,” says Michael Vaughan on Fox Cricket.

That’s a huge wicket in the context of this match with the new ball due in less than 10 overs.

You sense the Aussies will be baying for blood now.

2.40PM: O’KEEFFE THROWS SHOCK NAME INTO OPENING MIX

Kerry O’Keeffe has thrown a shock name into the mix to replace David Warner who only made his first-class debut two weeks ago.

O’Keeffe said he considered 18-year-old New South Welshman Sam Konstas a future Test player, but expects Prime Minister’s XI centurion Matthew Renshaw to partner Usman Khawaja in the West Indies series next month.

“Australia has found the six. They’ll look for the opener. The contenders are Bancroft, Harris, Renshaw,” O’Keeffe said on Fox Cricket.

“Head will stay at five, Cameron Green is a puncher’s chance, I doubt whether they’ll use him at the top. I would consider him strongly.

“As I’ve said before the smoky is teenager from New South Wales, Sam Konstas. But immediately, it will probably be Renshaw. I’ve had a long think. He’s impressed for Australia A, he deserves another crack at Test cricket.”

O’Keeffe also said Mitch Marsh was a “perfect” No.6 and should not be elevated.

2.08PM: FIFTY FOR PAKISTAN OPENER

Imam-ul-Haq reaches 50 from 162 balls, the equal-second slowest half-century by a Pakistan batter in Australia.

I know those craving entertaining batting won’t have loved his innings, but I’ve enjoyed the resolve Imam has shown.

Wasim Akram says he has as well on Fox Cricket, praising Imam’s application.

2PM: CAREY EXPLAINS BIZARRE RUN OUT MISS

Daniel Cherny in Perth

Alex Carey insists his missed run out of Pakistan’s Abdullah Shafique on day two of the first Test was not a “spirit of cricket” reaction to the Jonny Bairstow incident at Lord’s.

Less than six months on from the controversial stumping of Bairstow during the Ashes, Carey again raised eyebrows with his work behind the stumps on Friday.

Pakistan opener Shafique had blocked a Nathan Lyon delivery to Marnus Labuschagne at short leg, who have a lookaway throw to Carey.

The Australian gloveman gestured as though about to take the bails off but ultimately didn’t do so. As it turned out, Shafique had lifted his foot around the instant Carey made contact with the stumps, meaning the batter would likely have been run out had Carey dislodged the bails.

Ultimately it mattered little as Lyon removed Shafique only a couple of overs later.

But Channel Seven commentator Greg Blewett questioned whether Carey had decided against making the run out so as not to reprise any of the drama from the Bairstow incident, a moment that split the cricket world.

“And when you take it back to the Ashes and the Bairstow incident and I just wonder whether he thought, ‘Is it worth going there again?’” Blewett had pondered on air on Friday.

However speaking before play on Saturday on day three, Carey rejected a suggestion that the “spirit of cricket” had shaped his action.

“No. If there’s an opportunity to take a run out or a stumping you do that. I had my hand on the stump, missed the bail on the way back up,” Carey told SEN.

“(Labuschagne) tossed the ball back to me. Had my hand on the stump and sort of made the decision not to take the bail as his foot come up. And I guess once you make the decision it’s hard to take the bail from there. So split-second stuff.

“My momentum was coming away from the stump at the time.”

Former international umpire Simon Taufel explained on Seven that run out would have been fair.

“You do not need to be attempting a run to be run out,” Taufel said. “The law was changed about six years ago to provide some special protection to a batter to prevent them from being run out from accidental loss of contact once they had with the ground.

“That protection is only afforded when they’re running or diving back into their crease. That was not the case here.

“So if that foot was in the air when the bail is taken off by Alex Carey in that situation right there, then the batter is run out.”

1.40PM: CAN AUSSIES GET BABAR, BREAK PAKISTAN RESISTANCE?

Babar Azam always loomed as the key wicket and his early arrival on day three has given Australia a golden opportunity to expose Pakistan’s middle and lower-order.

One of the top-ranked Test batters in the world, Babar averages 44.4 against Australia and scored a century and 97 when Pakistan last toured in 2019.

“Hopefully he’ll come out and he’ll come out positive. Captaincy has been taken away from him and he looked very relaxed,” Pakistan legend Waqar Younis told Channel 7.

“I think that will really help him going forward. He’s a class act we can’t really wait to see him bat out there.”

Ricky Ponting pinpointed one area wher Babar must improve.

“He’s class. Simple as that. You look at his overall record – he probably hasn’t made the hundreds that you would expect of such a quality player. I think he’s got nine hundreds and 26 fifties in 49 games. That’s the area of his game that he will want to change and want to improve,” he said.

1.22PM: WICKET FALLS, CRAZY RUN IN CHAOTIC START

Pat Cummins has taken three balls to break through on day three with his first wicket, skittling nightwatchman Khurram Shahzad.

It came two balls after Shahzad was almost ran out on the opening deliver of the day when Imam-ul-Haq called him through for a sharp single.

Travis Head had three stumps to hit but missed, gifting Shahzad a life.

Not that it cost Australia in the end thanks to a ball from Cummins which would have been too good for many batters, let alone a nightwatchman.

Mark Waugh described the calling from ul-Haq as “horrendous”.

“It should have been (a run out),” Waugh said on Fox Cricket.

“That was just a horrendous call from Imam-ul-Haq first ball.

“Shahzad was just getting himself together at the non-strikers end, he wasn’t even thinking about a run.

“And it really should have been out. He had a good look at the stumps there, Travis Head.

“That’s comical, that running.”

CA PUSHING TO PROVIDE GREATER FIXTURE CERTAINTY

Daniel Cherny

Cricket Australia wants to lock away a long-term order for the home Test summer, but whether Perth or Brisbane ends up at the front of the queue remains to be seen.

A combination of the Covid-19 pandemic and a later start to the current Test series against Pakistan because of the World Cup pushing deep into November has made for a disjointed calendar in recent summers, with the long-time rhythm of a start at the Gabba in November culminating with the SCG Test in early January being disrupted.

But with border closures no longer an issue, and with CA being given an indication from the ICC about the likely composition of the Future Tours Program stretching through to 2031, CA wants to end the annual uncertainty around the Test calendar.

Brisbane had been the traditional first-Test venue through much of the 1990s and 2000s however its grip over the season-starter has loosened over the past decade.

Complicating the situation further is the fact the Gabba will be out of action after the Ashes Test in late 2025 for four years as part of its redevelopment ahead of the 2032 Olympics.

A replacement Test venue in Queensland during the intervening years is yet to be confirmed.

Australia has been hugely successful at the Gabba over the past 35 years, with its sole Test defeat at the venue coming in January 2021, when the home series against India finished at the ground.

CA chief Nick Hockley said he wanted to ensure fans had greater certainty around when and where Tests would be played.

“We’re working that through at the moment, (having) discussion with cricket associations, venues and government partners right around the country,” Hockley told this masthead.

“On not only next summer’s schedule but also the schedule for the next seven years going forward. So our aim is to give everyone clarity and certainty over the forward schedule so that we can all work together to make Test cricket as big as it can possibly be.

“Over the last few years, there has been a level of flexibility to the order (of the) Tests.

“What we’d ideally like to do over the next program as far as it’s possible, is to get a level of consistency.

“(For) cricket fans here but also visiting fans around the world know when they can they can build their plans, and ultimately it’s (about) getting as many people to the ground as possible.”

India is due to visit for five Tests next summer. Hockley would not indicate as to where that series will begin.

This is the second straight summer in which Optus Stadium has hosted the first Test. After underwhelming crowds last summer against the West Indies, CA and the WACA have worked diligently to grow excitement around this summer’s fixture. While well short of WACA chief Christina Matthews’ ambitions of 25,000, the crowd of 16,259 on day one of this week’s Test was the highest ever for a day’s Test cricket between Australia and Pakistan in Perth.

Originally published as Australia v Pakistan: First test, day three live: Scorecard, news, updates from Perth