England rolled for 172 in ugly Bazball capitulation before triggering stunning Aussie collapse

Cricket legends have savaged Australia's management after a mysterious Usman Khawaja injury - and a shambolic batting display - intensified questions over his future.

Usman Khawaja’s Test career is teetering after he was blasted out by England’s pace assault amid a farcical and unsettling top order reshuffle that left Australia in deep trouble at the end of a madcap opening day to the Ashes.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting urged the Aussie camp to come clean while World Cup-winning all-rounder Tom Moody savaged his former side after the Aussies’ months-long and meticulous plans for its Ashes batting lineup were dramatically thrown out the window, with Australia caught off guard by Khawaja’s ailment.

The Aussies were facing a sizeable first innings deficit after crumbling to 9-123 at stumps on Friday.

Mitchell Starc’s career-best haul of 7-58 had earlier decimated England, routed for 172 inside 33 overs.

RECAP DAY ONE IN OUR BLOG BELOW

But in eerily similar circumstances to last year’s Perth Test against India, Australia was even more feeble with the bat than its opponent on the first day of the series.

Central to the chaos was Khawaja, who spent an extended period off the ground during England’s innings with what the Australian camp eventually clarified was a back spasm. He had been stretching to overcome the issue.

The rapid collapse of the tourists from 5-160 in 3.1 overs meant that despite Khawaja returning to the field late in England’s innings, it was not soon enough to prevent him being bumped down the order in accordance with rules around the use of substitute fielders.

That meant that after Australia had stressed the importance of Marnus Labuschagne batting at his preferred spot at No. 3, he ended up needing to open with debutant Jake Weatherald.

The left-hander took the first ball but lasted just two deliveries, gone lbw to a successful DRS challenge from Jofra Archer. That brought Steve Smith and Labuschagne together in the first over. The pair survived 14 overs either side of the tea break before Labuschagne bottom-edged onto his wicket for nine, by which point Australia was 2-28 and Khawaja was again eligible to bat.

Smith - roundly booed by England fans - shortly thereafter edged Brydon Carse to fall for 17, leaving Australia 3-30. Carse had previously had a mid-pitch run-in with Labuschagne after the recalled batter survived a DRS appeal.

Stand-in captain Smith had earlier been visibly concerned by Khawaja’s prolonged absence from the field, appreciating the risk of forced disruption to the top order.

Moody slammed the Aussies for what had transpired.

“Poor management…beyond a joke… like Starc led the attack we needed Uzzie to lead the batting,” Moody said on the ABC.

Starc said he wasn’t sure about the origins of Khawaja’s back issue, although it’s understood it came about while he was fielding.

“I didn’t know about it until the ninth wicket, when he still had maybe 10 minutes or so, because he spent time off the field,” Starc said.

“I think he had a back spasm there the second time he came off. So we got caught off guard a little bit with obviously the wickets falling pretty quickly at the back end there, just unfortunate that that was the case. He’ll manage that overnight and see how we’re at tomorrow.”

Batting at No. 4 for just the second time in his Test career, Khawaja was undone by a brutal rising delivery from Carse taken by England wicketkeeper Jamie Smith.

It continued a long run of middling form for the soon-to-be 39-year-old, who is believed to be on a short leash heading into this series after averaging just 27.1 dating back to early last year, with just two scores above 50.

From there Australia capitulated further, as Ben Stokes ran through the middle and lower order as Travis Head and Alex Carey threw their wickets away after getting starts.

Before the clarification from CA, Ponting had questioned mixed messages seemingly emanating from the Australian camp.

“I agree. We’ve heard different messages already. The first time we heard it was a toilet break and that was thirty minutes. So, there’s already different messages coming out of the Australian camp about the reason he was off. I agree with you, I saw Steve Smith gesturing toward the dressing room saying, Where is he? We’ve got to get him back on. They took 5-12, didn’t they, in a short period of time and they’ve obviously been caught off-guard which is the last thing that Marnus wanted, the last thing that Jake wanted,” Ponting said on Channel 7.

“Jake Weatherald would have forging a relationship with Usman all week to build up and face his first ball in Test cricket. That was all taken away, so hopefully by the end of the day or tomorrow morning, we get the true story of about what actually happened with Khawaja.”

Things had started in a much rosier fashion for Australia. Forced to carry a heavy burden in the absence of the injured Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, Starc removed Zak Crawley - edging to Khawaja at first slip for a duck - in the first over of the match after England won the toss and elected to bat.

It was just the start of a masterclass from the veteran left-armer, whose haul included he key wickets of England inchipin Joe Root without scoring and captain Stokes for six.

Debutant Brendan Doggett picked up 2-27 including the key wicket of Harry Brook for 52 but Scott Boland was once more tamed by Bazball, going wicketless for 62 runs from 10 overs.

Originally published as England rolled for 172 in ugly Bazball capitulation before triggering stunning Aussie collapse