England benefitted greatly from an Australia miscommunication which saw Usman Khawaja not as part of their opening batters in the first Ashes test
Usman Khawaja was unable to open the batting for Australia at the first Ashes test having left the field of play when England’s last wicket was taken. Mitchell Starc delivered a masterclass in bowling to take seven wickets and leave England all out for 172 at the Perth Stadium with even Khawaja seemingly caught off guard.
Despite such a superb start for Australia, a miscommunication threatened to derail their first innings at the crease when Marnus Labuschagne, Australia’s preferred No 3, joined debutant Jake Weatherald to open the batting instead of Khawaja.
The reason he was missing was because had been off the field of play for “toilet breaks and stretching”, according to ABC Sport. However, that meant he was not allowed to return having been off the pitch when the last wicket was taken.
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The rules state clearly that once the next innings start he then has to spend a further 10 minutes off which meant he could not come in to bat third after Weatherald got out LBW by Jofra Archer for a duck.
Instead, Steve Smith walked onto the field of play to weather the storm as Archer, Brydon Carse and Gus Atkinson continued to throw some sensational deliveries. Australia were actually unable to score a run for the first few overs.
After tea, England lost a review but Labuschagne was bowled just minutes later after his attempted cover drive hit his own wickets. Khawaja then walked out fourth with the aim of salvaging a poor start by Australia.
Smith trudged off not long after that as he edged Carse’s delivery to leave Harry Brook with a simple catch.
Khawaja later followed with more time spent off the pitch than on it as Smith caught Carse’s delivery this time to leave Australia 31/4.
England needed to rally after a shocking first innings with the bat as Zak Crawley and Joe Root failed to score a run while England captain Ben Stokes managed just six.
Decent stints at the crease from Jamie Smith and Brook helped England rack up some runs, though they were taken out by Alex Carey and Starc, respectively.
The latter took a sensational seven wickets in the first few hours with Stokes, Root and Crawley facing just 25 deliveries between them.
Stokes spoke about his eagerness to secure an overseas victory in the Ashes with England able to recover brilliantly from a disastrous start.
“A lot has been spoken about the history and how it has gone for England [in recent years]. This is our chance to create our own history and it is up to us how that looks.
“Everyone in the world, everyone in Australia, everyone in England, knows how big this series is and I think if we were to come out and not accept that – treat it as just another series – we’d only be lying to ourselves.”
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