The Ashes Recap: England rattle through Australia to claim ascendancy in Perth

Starc continues. Michael Vaughan is calling for calmness from England.

Pope flashes at one! Toe edges one short of slip. Starc has a problem with his shoe so there’s a delay.

Pope is watchful a maiden

Boland to take the new ball from the other end.

He almost gets one first ball! It seams away as Duckett goes to drive and misses it by a mile.

First runs off the bat as Duckett bunts a single into the off-side

Ollie Pope opens his campaign with an outside edge that goes wide of the gulley for three.

Here’s a look at the first wicket.

No wicket off the first ball this time for Starc as Zac Crawley defends the first ball into the off-side.

There’s a play and miss outside off as Starc goes close to the edge.

HE’S DONE IT AGAIN!

Starc has another wicket in the first over as Crawley drives out one well outside off and the bounce does him as he feathers one to Khawaja at slip who almost drops it.

What a start for Australia!

The anthems have been sung and the flags are being taken off the ground with Mitch Starc to take the new rock.

Zac Crawley and Ben Duckett are walking out to bat with Crawley to take the first ball.

Australia 1 Jake Weatherald, 2 Usman Khawaja, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 Travis Head, 6 Cameron Green, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Nathan Lyon, 10 Scott Boland, 11 Brendan Doggett

England 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Brydon Carse, 10 Mark Wood, 11 Jofra Archer

There were some suggestions given how the wicket looked to bowl first but Ben Stokes had no hesitation in choosing to bat first.

“You try and take as much information as you...try and get some runs on the board. It’s been a long build-up, now we are finally here.”

Stokes also confirms it’s an all-pace attack, meaning Bashir misses out as expected.

Steve Smith says he would’ve chosen to bat first as well.

In keeping with their vibe, this tour, the English team were all chins up as they chose to walk through the crowd on their way into the stadium this morning.

They haven’t won in Australia in more than a decade or held The Ashes since 2015, but good luck telling them that

There are more than six thousand English fans expected to fill the ranks of the Barmy Army today.

We have a look at what they will provide to try and help their team break their Aussie drought.

He will be one of two debutants along with Jake Weatherald, who was given his cap by David Warner.

Stuart Broad had praise for the South Australian.

“Tall, fast. He’s obviously got experience being 31, he’s bowled a lot of deliveries. Of course he is going to be nervous over the next couple of days, but he is settling into a pretty experienced group,” he told Seven.

“He is tall, hits the pitch really hard, bowls back of a length and can swing the ball back to left-hander. If he can bowl balls like that, he will be pretty happy with himself.

“This is England’s opportunity to try and put some pressure on some slightly less experience and the amount of Test Matches in the bowling group - yes, you have Mitch Starc, Nathan Lyon, that Australia will lean on, but Boland and Doggett, England might just target them a little bit.”

It’s not quite as green as a couple of days ago, and the word is it’s hard underneath.

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