“Even last night under lights, when I was bowling it didn’t feel like there was much sideways movement,” Cummins told cricket.com.au on Sunday. “And he was tearing in and got four wickets out of nowhere.

“He’s someone who just looks to be at the top of his game at the moment. He’s played a few Shield games and been a class above there so it’s great that he’s transferred that over here and we saw at the Gabba (in the first Test) how effective he was as well.” With seven Pakistan wickets still on offer on Monday, Starc’s record of 33 wickets in six Tests under lights puts him nine clear of the third member of Australia’s pace-bowling trio, Josh Hazlewood, atop the list of leading day-night Test wicket-takers.

He also has 59 wickets at an average of just 18.00 in 10 first-class matches with the pink ball. Starc, one of the most prolific wicket-takers in limited-overs international cricket, said he and his pace partners are still getting used to the subtleties of the pink Kookaburra ball, which has gone through several reinventions since it was first used in early 2014.

“I still think it’s more like a white ball than a red ball, so that’s probably playing in my favour there,” he said after a fighting century from Yasir Shah, just the fourth-ever by a Test No.8 visiting Australia, pushed Pakistan’s first-innings total to 302 on Sunday.