Australia's ploy to play two spinners failed to reap a wicket on day one but Nathan Lyon and Stephen O'Keefe are set to play key roles in the first Test on Thursday.

Honours were shared on the opening day after Pakistan overcame a shaky start to reach 4-219 at stumps but runs on the board could prove crucial on a wicket which started to offer alarming turn nearing stumps.

Although economical, Australia's spin duo failed to consistently threaten Pakistan but Lyon's last spell with the second new ball nearing stumps was ominous.

Bowling a fuller line, Lyon turned several deliveries sharply and even drew puffs of dust off the pitch with one - a telltale sign the pitch is already wearing. He had two huge boisterous lbw shouts against Asad Shafiq turned down.

"I think we are going to see it turn through this match, it is probably going to get a bit more exciting as the game goes on," said Mitchell Johnson, who claimed 3-22 from 20 overs.

"The wicket will probably break up a bit more and we have already seen pretty big foot marks out there so I think there is going to be some pretty exciting cricket coming up in this match. It is definitely going to turn a lot more, we saw Nathan turning it out of the foot marks late. "

Pakistan are aiming for a total in excess of 400, which will leave them in a strong position as Australia have to bat last on this pitch, which good judges expect to prove difficult for batting by day four.

"[If] we score near to 400 then it will not be easy for Australia, but they didn't give us easy runs and they know that if we score over 400 it will be trouble for them because we have some quality spinners," Younis said.

Fortunately for Australia, Pakistan are relying on a third-gamer, Zulfiqar Babar, and a leggie on debut, Yasir Shah, to deliver the goods in the absence of the banned Saeed Ajmal.

While Australia were able to make just four breakthroughs, Pakistan crawled at 2.43 runs per over, surprising the visitors with their lack of aggression.

"I think you will find we will get out there and be a bit more aggressive than Pakistan was today. We will definitely be going after that new ball," Johnson said.

It may prove to be a high-risk, high-reward strategy as wickets were difficult to come by once the ball lost its shine, but so too runs.

"It seems that way, obviously the second new ball tonight there was enough there, a little bit of swing, it felt like there was still enough off the seam as well, we saw that with Peter Siddle's [wicket] ball as well," Johnson said.

"You have really got to use that new ball and make them play early on, we thought that coming over here anyway.

"We knew we had to focus on getting the ball up there, hit guys on the pads or get nicks early on. We had been told it was a chance of swinging early here and late in the day."

The Australians were able to extract reverse swing as early as the 27th over though could not produce a breakthrough.

"We just naturally let it go today. We didn't really get the opportunity to throw the ball into the side wickets like you can sometimes," Johnson said.

"The ball naturally just roughed up, it happened to work for us today and it'll just keep continuing on for their bowlers as well."