As Australia takes control in Perth, the stories of this summer begin to reveal themselves

There are days of Test cricket that captivate you completely, when time accelerates sessions disappear in a haze of unbearable tension and drama.

The game can be reduced to absolutes on these days. The beauty of context makes the stakes become clearer, as all of Test cricket’s history unravels in front of you to make space for a new chapter, being written in real time.

And then there are days you can dip in and out of.

They are smaller parts to a greater whole, building blocks for a more fulfilling story but in isolation the meaning is harder to find.

There are no prizes for guessing which of these two categories day three in Perth falls into.

Though the cricket may have often been of an exceptional quality, so much of this day was a tease of what might still be to come in this Test and this series.

At the top of the watchlist going forward is Pakistan’s performance, and their chances of causing some upsets this summer.

Nobody would dare question the tourists’ grit — in fact they grinded harder than almost any visiting team that isn’t India has for years — and yet they completed their first innings some 216 runs behind Australia.

In a surely deflated dressing room, questions would have been asked as to what more they could have done. The answer, very simply, is Pakistan needed to score a little faster.

Without going all England on it — and don’t worry, we won’t be using the B-word here this summer — the modern game has moved beyond scoring at 2.6 an over.

Only once in the Ashes did England bat for longer than Pakistan did in this innings. That was in Manchester, when the English batted for 107.4 overs and scored a frankly outrageous 592 runs. Compare that with Pakistan’s 271 from 101.5 overs here, and you’re looking at two completely different games.

There’s a middle ground between the two, and that is what was required for Pakistan to move its innings from defiant to damaging.

The good news is Pakistan has players capable of pushing the scoring, and perhaps the wicket of Shan Masood just before stumps on day two was more telling than was realised at the time. If the visitors can find the balance between graft and assertion, we could have a series on our hands.

Another one to keep on your radar — Mitchell Starc.

Something was up for the big left-armer today. The radar was busted, and the slips cordon faced the real and present danger of incoming missiles.

But almost more concerning was the fact you could see that Starc was hurting. Perhaps there is an unreported injury lurking behind the scenes, but as he trudged back to fine leg with his hat covering his face we armchair psychologists could only be led to concluding the anguish was mental.

Starc even left the field briefly after one particularly poor spell. Television cameras caught him looking at something intently in the back of the box, hinting that the treatment he needed was more psychological and technical than physical.

For a confidence player like Starc, they were alarming scenes. A bowler who is capable of delivering balls like the one that dismissed Sarfaraz Ahmed should not be as affected by a few dodgy overs, but something about them really troubled Starc.

At the other end of the spectrum, Nathan Lyon is clearly another story to track.

It looked like wicket 500 was on the cards as Lyon started feeding Alex Carey stumpings, but for now he remains stranded one short of a highly significant milestone.

Lyon will be thoroughly celebrated when that moment comes, but for now the powder remains dry.

We got yet another little David Warner twist, as he followed up his excellent day one ton with a five-ball duck in the second innings.

It’s a failure that means absolutely nothing really, but if you were hoping for a day or two free of the Great Warner Debate you are going to have to wait a little longer.

We can also officially put a watch on Saud Shakeel, a young man whose excellent start to his Test career appears to be no fluke.

It didn’t come on this day, but there will be a great Shakeel innings at some point this summer. And likely many more in the future.

By the time stumps arrived, Australia’s lead had grown to an even 300 thanks to a sturdy partnership between Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith. Any realistic path to a Pakistan victory has already been blocked off.

The Aussies will try to bat for a couple of sessions on Sunday, likely taking the lead beyond 450, and then have the best part of four sessions to bowl to victory.

But putting the result aside, there is intrigue swirling through this contest. Some will reach climaxes in the next two days, but some will percolate from Perth to Melbourne and through to Sydney.

Day three of the first Test might end up being the one that assured an Australian victory, but it might also be responsible for much more.