Melbourne
\nPat Cummins took a five-wicket haul in a dream start to his Australia captaincy as England were skittled for 147 by tea at the Gabba before rain brought the opening day of the Ashes to an early close.
\nAustralia\u2019s first fast-bowling skipper in 65 years, Cummins shone on a golden day for the home side that began with Mitchell Starc removing Rory Burns with the first ball after Joe Root sent his team in to bat on a grassy wicket.
\nThe play ended with Cummins (5-38) leading his team off the ground to a standing ovation, holding the Kookaburra ball aloft in celebration of his first \u2018five-fer\u2019 against the English.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s been a good start to my captaincy stint,\u201d said the 28-year-old quick.
\n\u201cI\u2019m really proud of not only how everyone bowled but I thought everyone stayed really composed.\u201d
\nThe rain capped a gloomy day for England at their traditional house of pain, but they may end up praying for more of it to avert defeat.
\nTheir sole victory on Wednesday was when Root called the toss correctly, but his faith in England\u2019s batting was forlorn in the face of a fearsome pace on a muggy, overcast morning.
\nBurns became the first player dismissed with the opening delivery of an Ashes in 85 years when Starc bowled him down the leg-side.
\nIt was an ugly dismissal for the Surrey man, who crab-walked across his stumps and trudged off with his sixth duck of the year, an all-time record for opening batsmen.
\nWithin half an hour he had been joined in the dressing room by Dawid Malan (6) and Root as the metronomic Josh Hazlewood struck twice.
\nMalan dangled his bat out to catch an edge and gave debut wicketkeeper Alex Carey his first test dismissal.
\nRoot was out for a duck by a pearl of a delivery from the big quick, with David Warner leaping wide for a superb catch in the slips.
\nCummins introduced himself after the morning drinks break, dismissing England\u2019s danger man Ben Stokes (5) with a brutish ball that induced a nick to a diving Marnus Labuschagne.
\nThe captain then had opener Haseeb Hameed out for 25 in similar fashion straight after lunch, leaving England 60 for five.
\nAn aggressive Jos Buttler (39) and Ollie Pope combined to rally England but Starc broke their 52-run stand with a sizzling delivery that caught Buttler\u2019s edge and sailed to Carey.
\nYoung all-rounder Cameron Green celebrated his first test wicket when Pope (35) sent a panicky pull which Hazlewood pouched brilliantly in the deep.
\nCummins cleaned up the tail to complete an inspirational performance, some 10 years on from his test debut as an 18-year-old, when he took a seven-wicket match haul at the Wanderers to help beat South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Melbourne Pat Cummins took a five-wicket haul in a dream start to his Australia captaincy as England were skittled for 147 by tea at the Gabba before rain brought the opening day of the Ashes to an early close. Australia\u2019s first fast-bowling skipper in 65 years, Cummins shone on a golden day for the home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-231782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n