The Ashes cricket scores: Joe Root and Ben Stokes two of Mitchell Starc’s victims as he takes 7-58

Stuart Broad said Ben Stokes should opt to bowl first — maybe the English skipper should have listened.

Instead he chose to bat which unleashed a Mitchell Starc reign of terror.

The only one of Australia’s big three quicks playing in the first Ashes Test, Starc proved why he is one of the world’s best strike bowlers as he took Zak Crawley’s wicket in the first over. The incredible start came four years after bowling opener Rory Burns around his legs at the Gabba with the first ball of the Ashes series that summer.

WATCH ROOT GO FOR A DUCK BELOW

He became the first bowler to take a wicket with the first ball of an Ashes series since Australian Ernest McCormick in 1936.

Bazball quickly became Bazbawl as the NSW veteran claimed his best figures of 7-58, which included Joe Root for a duck and clean bowling Stokes.

England were rolled for 172 an hour after the lunch break in scenes reminiscent of the first day in Perth last year where India made only 150 in their first innings.

Harry Brook was the only Englishman to offer any resistance, making 52 before walking after a video review clearly showed him gloving a Brendan Doggett delivery to Alex Carey, giving the debutant his first Test wicket.

It was the 24th time Starc has claimed a wicket in the first over of an innings, the left-arm quick boasting an unrivalled ability to rattle opening batsmen while they’re nervous.

“Make that 24 times in the first over of an innings,” Ricky Ponting exclaimed on Channel Seven’s commentary.

“Perfect length. Crawley tried to drive on the up. Maybe that little bit of extra bounce.

“Fine edge, maybe juggled by Khawaja at first slip. Perfect catching height. And that man has done it again.

“On the big stage, first morning of an Ashes, scrambled seam, extra bounce, nick. Khawaja does the rest, what a breakthrough for Australia.”

And while Starc stole the show on the first day, Root’s early failure is yet again a key storyline of an Ashes tour.

The world’s best batter, who has never scored a hundred in Australia, came to the crease with England in all sorts of trouble at 3-93.

His seven-ball effort at Perth’s Optus Stadium before being squared up and caught at third slip by Marnus Labuschagne is the first time Root has failed to even eke out a run in an innings on Australian soil. Root was the third of Starc’s scalps and his 100th Ashes wicket.

The No.4 has scored more than 13,500 runs in his Test career and is in hot pursuit of world record holder and Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar as one of the best to ever play the game.

Stokes, who had talked a big game in the leading up to the match, nearly fell over as he stumbled forward while his pegs were broken with a gem of a delivery from Starc as he went for six. Starc’s 7-58 was the fifth time he had claimed a five-wicket haul in the Ashes, bettering the 6-111 he took at Trent Bridge in 2015.

The English are not the only ones to have felt Starc’s first-over wrath, with even coach Brendan McCullum having fallen victim during his playing career with New Zealand.

During the opening over of the 2015 one-day international final at the MCG, McCullum, who had been in impressive form, had his stumps knocked over in a blow that started the Australians on their way to another World Cup trophy.

In July, Starc blew the West Indies apart with five wickets in his first 15 deliveries, including three in the opening over, as he took 6-9.