Start in Perth: 10.20am local/1.20pm AEDT/2.20am GMT
Day one report | Ashes top 100 | Series omens | Mail Geoff

Mitchell Starc didn’t quite play a lone hand for Australia, but the hosts were well short of the five star quicks that England rolled out on day one in Perth. Simon Burnton looks at how Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood, Brydon Carse and, of course, captain Ben Stokes hunted as a pack to turn the first Test on its head.

There is a strong argument that Ben Stokes should have made a different choice at the toss and immediately unleashed his barrage of fast bowlers at Australia’s openers, an out-of-sorts Usman Khawaja approaching his 39th birthday and a 31-year-old debutant in Jake Weatherald.

As it turned out, his decision did not delay that moment for long, the tourists bowled out for 172 inside 33 overs. This turn of events may have brought England’s supporters down to earth, but it inspired their players to reach for the stars.

Starc did not pick up wickets in a kamikaze burst, but with consistent quality over a dozen overs split into two lengthy spells, the second of which was cut in half by the lunch break.

Without much swing, with decent carry but no obvious weapons for a bowler, he was consistently above 140kmh (87mph), constantly at his opponents with barely a loose delivery. It might well have been his highest-quality performance on a surface good for batting.