If the first hour sets the tone of an Ashes series England may as well go home now.
Certainly things scarcely got brighter for the tourists after a horror start against the new ball, as they were bowled out before tea for just 147.
No sooner had Joe Root won the toss and batted was he back in the pavilion pondering the huge hole he and the rest of the top order had dug before new Australian captain Pat Cummins, who finished the innings with the figures of 5-38, had even got his hands on the new ball.
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England had hoped that the Tim Paine saga would unsettle Australia in the lead-up to the Ashes opener, but Cummins and co spent little time dispelling such notions.
After being Australia’s chief destroyer during the 2019 Ashes in the UK, picking up 29 wickets, Cummins barely bowled a bad delivery on his opening day as Test captain. It’s one that he could not have scripted any better.
Debilitating back problems meant Cummins had to wait six years between his first and second Tests, and its easy to forget that he’s still played just 35 Test matches.
However, the numbers already prove that he will go down as one of Australia’s all-time greats.
Cummins’ bowling average of 21.18 is the lowest by an Australian in 58 years, while his strike-rate of 46.2 is the best by an Aussie in 113 years. He is the first Australian Test skipper to take five or more wickets in his captaincy debut since George Giffen in 1894.
After starting the series under pressure, Mitchell Starc made his critics eat humble pie with the very first delivery of the day, when he smashed through the stumps of Rory Burns, who completely misjudged a full ball that swung behind his legs and into the stumps after starting down the legside.
That first ball of the summer set the tone for what became a miserable start to the series for England, with Josh Hazlewood joining in to quickly dismiss Dawid Malan and Root before Cummins took charge with another outstanding spell of bowling.
At 3-11 the tourists had a massive hill to climb. When star all-rounder Ben Stokes became Cummins’ first victim for just 5 it became a mountain and at that point it looked like they’d struggle to combine for a total greater than 100.
Top scorers Jos Buttler (39) and Ollie Pope (35) offered a brief resurgence with a strong partnership, but when they were dismissed in quick succession off the bowling of Starc (2-35) and Cameron Green (1-6) Australia regained full control and Cummins knocked over the tail.
Smart and timely bowling changes are vital to being a good Test captain, and Cummins nailed his choices on the opening day.
After Buttler and Pope had wrestled back some of the momentum for the tourists, Cummins’ decision to bring Starc and Green back into the attack proved to be inspired.
The 28-year-old earned rave reviews from former Australian paceman Brett Lee, who said his management of the attack did not make him seem like a first-time captain.
“He had a stroke of genius when he gets Green on, gets the breakthrough of the biggest partnership in the game and then takes him straight off because he brings on Josh Hazlewood because he can bowl at the tail,” Lee told Fox Sports
“So that’s a captain that — if you’re watching, you wouldn’t think it’s his first game as captain. He looks as though he’s been around for a long time.”
If Cummins could not have scripted a better day for his side, his English counterpart Joe Root surely could not have scripted a worse one.
Having left both Stuart Broad and James Anderson out of his side for the Ashes opener, Root will hope a relatively inexperienced pace trio of Mark Wood, Chris Woakes and Ollie Robinson can put the clamps on Australia’s batting line-up.
A failure to do so could mean this series is over virtually immediately after it began.
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