Perth pitch not all it's cracked up to be

As his top-order weaved and wore the barrage directed at them from India's pace attack this evening, Nathan Lyon admits he watched on with trepidation as to what might await when it's his turn to bat.

But despite the scary look of the Perth stadium pitch, with a series of jagged cracks now traversing its length and adding a further element of risk to an already fast and bouncy surface, neither team believes batting is impossible as the second Test nears its conclusion.

India seamer Jasprit Bumrah claimed the prominent fissures have played little direct role in the 11 wickets that fell on day three, which ended with Australia 4-132 in their second innings and holding an overall lead of 175 runs.

"If you see, nobody has really gotten out because of the crack," said Bumrah, who had earlier landed a frightening blow upon opener Marcus Harris's batting helmet from a delivery that ripped back sharply at the left-hander.

"The crack is just there, but it doesn't do a lot.

"It's only in the mindset, so we don't take that into consideration."

Bumrah instead suggested it was the lessons that India's four-pronged seam attack learned from their first outing at the venue hosting its inaugural Test that brought the vast improvement in their results today.

During Friday's initial sessions, Harris and his opening partner Aaron Finch had experienced few difficulties with the India quicks as they fashioned their maiden century first-wicket partnership.

However, two days later batting became so difficult that most who found themselves in the centre returned with at least one welt, as the ball flew at acute angles and frightening pace.

And Finch fared even worse, the full extent of the injury sustained to his right index finger to be known tomorrow morning when a decision will be made on whether he's able to continue his innings of 25 not out.

Lyon, Australia's most successful bowler with 5-67 on a track that was so likely to favour seamers that India opted not to play a specialist spinner, expects he'll be physically challenged when it comes his turn to bat in the remaining days.

But he's not thinking about making impromptu changes to his batting technique in order to protect his spinning fingers, despite the fears he nursed as India's quicks rained body blows upon Australia's specialist batters tonight.

"I was a little bit nervous watching out there, but I'm a bit of a nervous character before I have to bat anyway," Lyon said at day's end.

"You just hope you don't get hit on the gloves.

"I can't go home tonight and worry about getting hit on the gloves.

"I've been working hard on my batting, so I'm just going to keep sticking to my strengths.

"There's no point me coming out to try and bat like Aaron Finch or someone like that, I've got to bat like myself.

"I'm not a very good batter, so I've just got to try and find a way."

Domain Test Series v India

Dec 6-10: First Test, Adelaide Oval, India won by 31 runs

Dec 14-18: Second Test, Perth Stadium

Dec 26-30: Third Test, MCG

Jan 3-7: Fourth Test, SCG

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c, wk), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Mitch Marsh (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Chris Tremain

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar