Australia v Pakistan: third Twenty20 international – live!

4th over: Pakistan 18-2 (Imam 10, Haris 0) Richardson into the attack and he does a fine, probing job to keep the over to three runs, beating Imam’s outside edge with the last ball of the over.

Masterful pressure bowling from Starc sees Rizwan clean bowled through an inviting gap and the Aussie left-armer on a hat-trick.

3rd over: Pakistan 15-2 (Imam 7, Haris 0) Starc loses his radar, bowling successive led-side wides before he over-corrects and invites the red-hot Babar to crash him through the covers for four. Then two wickets in two balls puts this match on its head. No hat-trick for Starc but no bother. A great over.

Starc traps the Pakistan captain on the front pads and the batsman is given out leg before. Babar sends the decision upstairs and the referral seems to take an eternity to be adjudicated, but there is no edge and no line issues. Big wicket for Australia.

2nd over: Pakistan 9-0 (Babar 2, Imam 7) Great to see Abbott back in Australian colours and with new ball in fist. This man has taken more wickets in this format than most. Both Babar and the bespectacled Imam milk some singles. There’s seam movement and bounce off this pitch. Abbott beats Imam’s edge with an off-cutter before the leftie advances down the pitch for a welcome boundary over mid-on.

1st over: Pakistan 3-0 (Babar 1, Imam 2) And we’re away under clear skies in Perth. Starc has ball in hand and first ball Imam barely feathers an edge through the vacant gully region that flies down to third man. Plenty of bounce in this greenish deck. Starc responds with a ripper of a yorker to Babar. A watchful beginning from the Pakistan opening batsmen.

England have just put the finishing touches on a good, old-fashioned demolition job on New Zealand in Napier.

Check out Tanya Aldred’s frankly superb blow-by-blow account below.

Changes galore from the Canberra match. For the hosts, Pat Cummins and Adam Zampa are left out, with Sean Abbott and Billy Stanlake coming in. Pakistan have made four, yes four, changes. Imam Ul Haq, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain and Muhammad Musa are the new faces, with Khushdil and Musa making their T20 international debuts.

Australia: Aaron Finch (c), David Warner, Steve Smith, Ben McDermott, Ashton Turner, Alex Carey (w), Ashton Agar, Sean Abbott, Mitchell Starc, Kane Richardson, Billy Stanlake.

Pakistan: Imam Ul Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (w), Haris Sohail, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hasnain, Muhammad Musa

Aaron Finch says there is enough in the deck, and enough in the history books, to suggest chasing is the way to go on this Perth deck. Pakistan skipper Babar Azam says he would have bowled first, too. I guess you could say it’s first blood to Australia.

Moving away ever so marginally from the matter at hand, where do you stand on Australia’s Test captaincy? With Smith well and truly back in the fold, and his leadership ban ending in March, talk will not go away about whether he’s the right man to take over from Tim Paine. Is it, dare I say, inevitable that the former skipper is a future skipper in waiting?