Ashes 2021-22: Follow all the action from day one of the Boxing Day Test between Australia and England

Australia twisted the knife in an Ashes Boxing Day massacre on Sunday - with England torn to shreds over their shambolic day one performance.

Steve Smith and Travis Head will be keys for Australia. Picture: AFP Images

Pat Cummins decided it was gloves off on Boxing Day as he floored England with the KO punch that is set to deliver the Ashes for Australia.

England were skittled for just 185 on the most embarrassing day of an already disastrous tour, with Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and even Joe Root responsible for some of the worst dismissals in recent Ashes memory.

Steve Smith said the cloudy skies and green conditions which greeted players on Sunday morning reminded him of the circumstances which preceded Australia getting skittled for 98 when they were sent in by England’s history making side back in 2010.

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Pat Cummins put the blowtorch on England after winning the toss and electing to bowl. Picture: Getty

But although Cummins’ decision to bowl first was bold, inspired and important, there was an inevitability about England’s shocking capitulation which suggested they were dead men walking regardless of which way the toss went.

Root was too terrified to bowl first on a green top at the Gabba, but it’s a different ball game when the captain is also the world’s No.1 fast bowler, and Cummins confidently roared back into the series to back up his own decision and inflict on England its 50th Test match duck for the year in just the second over of the innings.

David Warner was charging towards another big first innings score until he fell in the final 10 minutes of play for 38 off 42 balls – but it was still all Australia, just 124 runs from taking an early first innings lead at 1-61 at stumps.

Under-pressure Victorian Marcus Harris (20 not out) has a big opportunity to make a career-changing hundred at his home ground on day two, provided a nasty blow to his finger from Stokes delivery which left him bloodied and rattled doesn’t prove to be much worse.

Harris had his finger glued after being split - causing the excess bleeding in his glove - and should be OK to resume in the morning.

Marcus Harris finished the day unbeaten, as he fights to save his Test career. Picture: Getty

Haseeb Hameed (0) and Zac Crawley (12) were walking wickets for Cummins (3-36), but it was his removal of dangerman Dawid Malan (14) in the over before lunch which shaped the day, because England had started to look comfortable with the No.3 and Root (50) at the crease.

Mitchell Starc (2-54) bowled just three overs in the opening session, but continued his game-breaking form to tempt Root into swiping at a wide one outside off-stump he should have left alone, to blow yet another opportunity to break his duck of never having scored a hundred on Australian soil.

Stokes and the recalled Bairstow both committed the cardinal sin of setting solid platforms, only to throw their wickets away with brain explosion dismissals.

England’s superstar all-rounder lent back to play an extravagant back-foot drive to become Cameron Green’s latest victim, while Bairstow got cramped by Starc and tried to paddle one over the slip cordon only to pop one up for the long-armed Green to snaffle up at gully.

Joe Root screams in frustration after being dismissed for 50. Picture: Michael Klein.

In Adelaide, Buttler shed his white ball grounding to dig in for 207 balls in a brave attempt to save the game for England.

But on Boxing Day he reverted to hit and giggle mode despite the dire match situation and he became the first of Nathan Lyon’s (3-36) three victims.

Then the 57,000 strong MCG crowd got the moment it was waiting for, when Victorian debutant Scott Boland claimed in his first Test wicket to further celebrate becoming, at age 32, the oldest fast bowler to earn a baggy green since Geff Noblet in 1950.

England’s dismal waving of the white flag was the 13th time in 2021 they have been bowled out for under 200 in 28 innings.

Not even four changes from Adelaide could shake up a team which seems destined for a 5-0 whitewash, with England’s batting at the moment an abomination.

Former Test opener Chris Rogers said on SEN radio that new opener Zac Crawley looked more like a middle-order batsman and questioned why Malan wouldn’t just be moved to the top of the order given how regularly he and Root are coming to the crease at two down for not many.

Re-live all the day one action from our blog below.