Spin-friendly SCG pitch keeps Salman, and Pakistan, hopeful

Perhaps the scorecard doesn't quite do justice to the opportunity Pakistan have here at the SCG in this final Test. Of the 47 fairly routine overs that were sent down on a grey second day in Sydney, there was one ball that provided Pakistan a faint glimpse into what a good third day might look like. And all things good that come through here run through the man who bowled it.

In the 25th over, Agha Salman landed one on leg stump around a good length that ragged from the surface - drifting in, and then bouncing and spinning away - to take David Warner's outside edge. Babar Azam, at first slip now shortly after debutant Saim Ayub had put a catch down there, grasped onto it. What was deemed a lifeless pitch at the start of the day suddenly brimmed with possibility, especially when Salman was operating from one end.

"For spinners, there is help if you put the ball in the right areas, there is assistance, and there will be more as the Test match goes on," Salman said at the press conference. "You just have to bowl in the right areas as much as you can and I was trying to do that. Sajid [Khan] was getting some turn as well but the drift I was getting was greater."

And that is where any improvement from Pakistan could give them a boost. It is perhaps not especially flattering for Sajid Khan that the man specifically flown in from the other side of the world and thrust into the side struggled to be more effective with some of the basics of spin bowling than Salman. Salman may officially be an allrounder but for much of his Test career, has been viewed as a useful lower middle-order batter.

It is not a definition he agrees with, and over these three days, he has the chance to make a strong argument to that effect. "I always think of myself as an allrounder but this series I got more opportunities and people saw more of me bowl. But I always think I'm an allrounder and want to play as an allrounder."

Salman's demonstrative celebration when he took that wicket perhaps also illustrates how live the visiting side feels this game is. When Babar held on to that catch - just about - Salman leapt into the air in a mixture of joy and the release of pent-up celebration, players who had spent the last hour in resigned dejection perking up animatedly.

"Davey's a big wicket," he said. "Whenever you get him out, he's a massive wicket. At that time, we needed a wicket. It was a reaction to getting a big player out."

There was both praise and encouragement from the other side of the aisle, too. Usman Khawaja called it "a ripper of a ball", and, having grown up on these wickets, suggested he wouldn't be surprised if spin continued to assume greater importance as the Test goes on.

That is particularly encouraging for Pakistan because it suggests a return to the sort of traditional SCG pitches that have had a reputation for helping spin bowlers out. More recent Test matches haven't quite played out that way, with the strip holding firm and spinners getting limited assistance - that Nathan Lyon averages over 40 here is perhaps the best illustration of that. Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill bowled in tandem with success, and when Pakistan last played a Test here in 2017, Australia lined up with Steven O'Keefe and Hilton Cartwright in Lyon's absence.

Going further back, Pakistan's last win in Australia came here at the SCG in 1995, with Saqlain Mushtaq and Mushtaq Ahmed combining for 11 wickets. Khawaja suggested this pitch was more of a throwback to several years ago rather than a repeat of the more recent surfaces at this ground.

"This is as close to an SCG pitch that I grew up playing on," Khawaja said. "It used to be quite a slow wicket once the ball lost its shine and and it spun a bit, with balls staying low. If we keep getting play on to, I expect it to deteriorate, it's already taking turn. I think it's a very good wicket."

If it can continue to provide Salman the kind of assistance he got to break the opening partnership, Pakistan might agree.