England skittled for 147 in Ashes opener as Australia prove ruthless under Pat Cummins

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05/08/2022
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England chalked up yet another first day shocker to add to their long list of Ashes horror shows after being routed for just 147 in Brisbane.

In fact it wasn’t even a full day with the Aussies taking just 50.1 overs to bring an end to a miserable innings from the visitors before the rain came down and ended proceedings for the day.

From the moment Rory Burns was clean bowled round his legs by Mitchell Starc from the very first ball of the entire series, things hardly got much better for Joe Root ’s side.

And as bad a day as it was for Root who collected yet another duck for this England team this year, it was a magical start for his opposite number Pat Cummins.

On his first day in charge of the Australian Test team, everything went right for the fast bowling skipper as he collected 5-38 without breaking much of a sweat.

In conditions perfectly suited to pace bowling under cloudy skies and with a green looking pitch he would have been delighted when Root decided to bat first.

Together with Starc and the relentlessly accurate Josh Hazlewood, the pace trio snuffled nine wickets between them with medium paced all rounder Cam Green grabbing the tenth.

Former England skipper turned pundit Alastair Cook said: “Cummins must think that captaincy is easy. Everything he’s touched has turned to gold.

“Australia have been superb with the ball. Hazlewood and Cummins are a joy to watch. The relentless accuracy they have makes me glad to be sitting here rather than facing them.

“Cummins doesn’t move the ball massively, but he has really subtle skills. He does just enough and as a batsman he is hard to line up.

England skittled for 147 in Ashes opener as Australia prove ruthless under Pat Cummins

“The one thing for England fans to cling to is that surely he cannot continue like this throughout. He will be put under pressure at some point with his captaincy.”

That pressure certainly didn’t come at the Gabba as England were reduced to 29-4 inside 13 overs.

Burns and Dawid Malan’s departures were tough early blows to swallow, but it was Hazlewood’s dominance over Root and Cummins’ dismissal of Ben Stokes that were the real knockout punches.

The entire team were sporting black armbands in memory of former Test player Eileen Ash who died at 110 last week, while Stokes also penned his dad’s New Zealand rugby league number on his since it was one year since he had passed.

Stokes had looked in decent touch before he edged one that bounced a touch to third slip.

Haseeb Hameed made 25, and was largely untroubled in getting to lunch, but the first over after the break saw him edge to second slip to end a promising knock.

With England in danger of a complete capitulation, Ollie Pope and Jos Buttler launched a mini-fightback that suggested there are runs to be scored by this team if they can stay in long enough.

Pope was busy and technically sound, while Buttler was adventurous and free flowing as they put on 52 for the sixth wicket.

But just when their counter-attack looked like it might grow into something substantial, Starc returned to have Buttler caught behind and it opened the floodgates.

Green accounted for Pope, caught off a top edge down at long leg for 35, while Chris Woakes was the fourth and final player to reach double figures before he fell the same way for 21.

England lost their last five wickets for just 35 runs as Cummins cleaned up, becoming just the fifth Aussie captain to take five wickets in an innings in the Ashes as England posted the sixth lowest ever first innings score at the Gabba.