Ashes 2025-26: Starc starts off breathing fire and England not able to deal with heat

A lot was talked about Australia's depleted pace attack for the Ashes opener in Perth which didn't include Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. Mitchell Starc, however, remined everyone that he's still there for the Test which started Friday (Nov 21). England skipper Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bat first at Optus Stadium and Starc was on point first over. Bowling over the wicket to Zak Crawley, Starc made him drive and the batter could only edge it to slips and England lost their first wicket for no runs on the board.

Starc strikes in first over again

The Zak Crawley wicket was 24th time in Tests that Starc took a wicket in the very first over. Retired England bowler James Anderson leads the list of most wickets if first over of Tests with 29 scalps to his name. Starc, however, was far from done as he struck again in the seventh over of the innings again, this time trapping Ben Duckett Leg Before Wicket (LBW).

Starc's biggest wicket of the morning came nearly two overs later as he sent back star England batter Joe Root for a duck. With the wicket, Starc also completed 100 wickets in the Ashes. By the time Starc was done with his first spell, England were three down for 50 runs.

England go all pace in Perth

Earlier, England revealed their playing XI for the Test which included all pacers in the bowling line up. England left out offie Shoaib Bashir from the 12-man team announced a couple of days ago went with Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, and Mark Wood along with skipper Stokes as the fifth bowling option.

England playing XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (capt), Jamie Smith (wk), Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Mark Wood, Jofra Archer

Australia playing XI: Jake Weatherald, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith (capt), Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland, Brendan Doggett