'Shades of the WACA' in bruising Perth pitch

A handful of their batters are sporting bruises, but Australia have endorsed the Perth Stadium pitch produced for the first NRMA Insurance Test against Pakistan, with Mitchell Starc even declaring that it had "shades of the WACA".

The rapid deterioration of the drop-in surface made batting an increasingly fraught prospect on day four, with Pakistan skittled for just 89 as the home side’s bowlers expertly exploited variable bounce and sideways movement.

The Aussie top-order had also had their struggles, with Marnus Labuschagne (who was hit on the finger) and Steve Smith (left arm) both copping nasty blows late on day three, before Usman Khawaja (right arm) and Mitch Marsh (struck on the helmet twice) were in the firing line the following day.

Fourth-day hero Nathan Lyon lauded Khawaja and Marsh for their 126-run partnership that set up Australia's declaration, but which was largely overshadowed by the off-spinner taking his 500th Test wicket later in the afternoon.

Both teams admitted their surprise at how quickly a pitch that had seen just 12 wickets fall in 166.2 overs across days one and two suddenly became so challenging to bat on.

But it largely followed the anticipated trajectory laid out before the Test by head curator Isaac McDonald, who learnt from producing a wicket deemed marginally too batter-friendly for last year's Perth Test against West Indies.

McDonald left less grass on this year's surface in the hope it would naturally help bowlers more as the match wore on.

Starc suggested the pitch was beginning to gain its own character.

"Not overly surprising, it probably played a bit more like the India Test match we played here (in 2018) in terms of the cracks," Starc told cricket.com.au, referring to Australia's 146-run win over India that marked the first Test hosted by the 60-000-seat venue.

"Obviously a little bit less grass than last year. It played quicker, a bit more bounce … and that little bit less grass cover allowed it to deteriorate as the Test went on.

"We're over in the west, shades of the WACA – I certainly miss the WACA, the breeze we get there – but it's starting to show some character here with the same stuff."

There was a sense from both teams that the deterioration process happened slightly too quickly.

As a bowler, captain Pat Cummins admitted he would enjoy playing every Test on a pitch like that, though admitted he had been taken aback by how quickly it turned in the bowlers' favour.

"After the first two days, I think there was 12 wickets that fell, but I think that could have easily been 20," said Cummins.

"I thought it was really good, even contest. There's some runs to be scored there, but it also felt like as a bowler if you got it in the right areas, there was something there for the whole innings.

"It probably broke up, today in particular, a lot more than I thought it would. There were big cracks and there was a bit more up and down than I was expecting.

"But overall I thought it was a good wicket … It's probably a bit more (challenging) than you ideally want for a day-four wicket.

"But there's a lot of cricket before that to set up the game. We play on a lot of wickets where it's really flat and it's 'fill your boots' as a batter.

"Here, potentially second innings for both teams was more difficult than the first, but as you saw there's plenty runs to be got out there."

Pakistan have their own concerns after scoring just 271 when the pitch was still good to bat on, losing their last first-innings wickets for only 90, before crumbling inside 31 overs on Sunday.

The tourists had been upset with the pitch produced for their tour match in Canberra before this first Test, a surface slowed down by significant rain in the lead-in, which made it chalk and cheese with the quick and bouncy Perth track.

They will play another tour game against a Victoria XI at Melbourne's Junction Oval next week ahead of the Boxing Day Test.

"The amount of deterioration we witnessed, I wasn't expecting that much because on the fourth day the deterioration in the pitch was really high," said Pakistan coach Mohammad Hafeez.

"We believe it was a good toss to the win for Australia. They managed to put runs on the board and then obviously batting in the fourth innings and on the fourth and fifth day is going to be a real challenge and we couldn't do that, to be honest."

NRMA Insurance Test series v Pakistan

First Test: Australia win by 360 runs

Second Test: December 26-30, MCG (10.30am AEDT)

Third Test: January 3-7, SCG (10.30am AEDT)

Australia squad: (first Test only) Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Lance Morris, Steve Smith, Mitch Starc, David Warner

Pakistan squad: Shan Masood (c), Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afridi