The opening day of the second Test of the summer became a rain-affected affair with the Aussies reaching 3/187 at the end of play.

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Australia made a strong start before the tourists bounced back with the wickets of David Warner, Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith.

With the series hanging in the balance, a big day of play looms ahead with Pakistan needing to claim wickets early and often.

Don’t miss a second of the action here.

10.15am – Head sent packing in early disaster

Travis Head’s innings has come to an end after a peach of a delivery from Shaheen Afridi caught the edge of his bat and sailed into the hands of Salman Ali Agha.

Agha launched to his left at second slip and hauled in the brilliant diving catch to finish Head’s innings on only 17 runs.

Ricky Ponting was critical of Head for throwing his wicket away but praised Afridi for luring him into the bad shot.

“There is still enough there. You have to stay patient as a bowling group. We talk about patience with batting all the time, but it’s equally important for the bowlers. Stay patient, try and build pressure, keep yourself in the game,” Ponting said on 7’s coverage.

“If you go searching for wickets and you bowl a couple of bad balls an over, that’s all the best batsmen are looking for, looking for one little error ball an over that they can jump all over. That’s exactly what Travis Head does, if he gets the ball in the right area he’s a chance to get a catch behind the wicket.

“Well I said last ball of last over from Shaheen, if he just kept it up there and kept it swinging away that there’s a chance for a catch behind the wicket.

“There’s just a little bit of swing, he plays a long way away from his body and that’s an excellent catch. Right in the middle of the hands, high to his left, some reward finally for Shaheen Afridi.”

Marnus Labuschagne enjoyed a better start to the day, raising his bat for his half-century only moments later.

9.30am – Aussie struggles raise serious questions

Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschange used to be the most reliable and dominant batsmen not only in Australia, but across the global cricket landscape.

But the two Aussies have failed to live up to their normal dominance which has raised concerns among cricket fans.

Smith was sent packing after only making 26 runs while Labuschagne will resume day two unbeaten on 44. But it was the sluggish start to Labuschagne’s innings that had former Australian keeper Adam Gilchrist and former English skipper Michael Vaghan worried.

It took the Queenslander 75 deliveries to find the boundary rope with his strike rate currently sitting on 36.67.

Gilchrist compared Labuschagne’s mentality to himself facing England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff in the United Kingdom 2005, and former Ashes rival Michael Vaughan agreed.

“He’s struggled to find his rhythm,” Vaughan said of Labuschagne’s batting this year.

“I’m not too sure if there’s been a technical change, or just mental.

“To me, he’s just trying to survive those channel deliveries.

“I get the sense with Marnus that he’s just thinking about survival.”

Labuschange has surpassed fifty runs only twice over his previous 14 innings while Smith has two half-centuries across his previous 10 innings.

While Smith has fared better than his compatriot, his average in 2023 of 41.85 sits well below his career average of 58.4.

9am – Pakistan star makes shock claim

Australia arguably hold the upper hand after the opening day, but that’s not the way Pakistan bowler Hasan Ali sees it.

The pace bowler stated after day one that it’s the tourists who are in the superior position having held the Aussies to only 187 runs.

“We are a bit ahead of them right now,” he said at the post-match press conference.

“Honestly, it was a good day as a bowling unit. We are a bit unlucky we haven’t got enough wickets, but the best thing is we have not given them enough runs.

“We’re looking forward to tomorrow, and restricting them to the minimum possible score.”