Australia bats first

Australia has won the toss and elected to bat following a delayed start to the second Test against Pakistan at the SCG.

Morning rain prevented play from beginning until 2pm local time after the entire first session was washed out.

Australia has replaced the injured Simon Katich with Phillip Hughes at the top of the order, with Clinton McKay 12th man.

Pakistan has made three changes to the side beaten by 170 runs in the Boxing Day Test, installing Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Sami and Umar Gul at the expense of Mohammad Aamer, Abdur Rauf and Saeed Ajmal.

The SCG pitch has a greenish tinge to it and will assist the fast bowlers early.

"If we bat well in the first innings we should be able to set the match up," Australian captain Ricky Ponting said.

Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf admitted he would have bowled first had he won the toss.

Hughes' return at the top of the Australian order came to fruition after Katich failed a fitness test on his injured elbow.

Katich underwent a net session 90 minutes before the start of play on Sunday morning but was unable to bat without discomfort, ruling him out of the game and paving the way for Hughes to return to the Test side.

The NSW left-hander has been on the outer since being dropped following the second Test of last year's Ashes series and will now open the batting with Shane Watson, the man who replaced him in England.

"Simon Katich batted for 20 minutes in the indoor nets today," team physio Alex Kountouris said.

"Simon was still very sore this morning after the net. It was decided he should be replaced in the starting eleven by Phillip Hughes due to soreness in his elbow resulting in a limited range of batting shots."

Hughes was pulled out of the Blues' Big Bash side that met Victoria in Melbourne on Saturday night, flying back to Sydney to act as standby for Katich.

Australia: Shane Watson, Phillip Hughes, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Marcus North, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle, Nathan Haurtiz, Doug Bollinger, Clint McKay (12th man)

Pakistan: Mohammad Yousuf, Salman Butt, Faisal Iqbal, Umar Akmal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Sami, Imran Farhat, Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif, Danish Kaneria