Starc difference in Australia's day of two halves

On any other day Mitchell Starc would have been the lone shining star.

A wicket in the first over of an Ashes series, again. A career-best 7 for 58 to destroy England, again. His second career-best figures in as many Test bowling innings. His 100th wicket in Ashes cricket. Two stunning deliveries to remove Test cricket's second-highest scorer for a seven-ball duck and England's talismanic captain for just 6. His 17th Test five-for, his fifth against England to bowl the visitors out for 172 in 32.5 frantic overs after they had elected to bat.

But when he stood in front of the media at 6.20pm local time, his bowling performance felt like it took place a week ago after an Ashes record 19 wickets had fallen. He was instead left to lament a carbon copy collapse to the one Australia experienced 12 months ago on the same ground against India, answer questions on Usman Khawaja's fitness, and contemplate the prospect of having to carry his team on his shoulders with the ball again day two after a short turnaround.

"[The game is] probably [in] fast-forward, I guess," Starc said. "It's happening quickly."

Amid the chaos, Starc deserves his flowers. It was very clear after the interminable build-up that most players on both sides were incredibly nervous. It would have been easy for Starc to fall into that camp, having to lead an attack that had neither Pat Cummins nor Josh Hazlewood in it for the first time at home since 2022. When both men will return remains unknown. Cummins has said he is hopeful to be fit for Brisbane, but Hazlewood is unavailable until further notice, with concerns about his chances of returning at all quietly growing.

But Starc said he had no nerves.

"Not really actually, strangely quite calm for the week," Starc said. "Even till we got to the ground, still had the sense of occasion, but until we were out there for the anthems, and then first ball was when sort of the beans start to go."

He held his nerve when all about him were losing theirs even when the beans started to go. There was no Rory Burns moment, as Zak Crawley defended an excellent first delivery to a groan from the 43,591 who had made it through the gate before the start of play. They witnessed a masterclass with Starc's next five. Crawley was not given any width or length to work with. He flashed once and missed. He tried again last ball and nicked it to Khawaja at slip. England were 0 for 1 after the first over of the series for the third time in the last five Ashes in Australia.

Scott Boland struggled to find his length with new ball at the other end with England, and specifically Ben Duckett, collaring him in prophetic fashion at six-an-over.

Duckett looked sharp, but Starc was sharper, zipping through a 142.6kph thunderbolt to pin him plumb lbw.

Then came Joe Root, with so much expectation on him to break his century drought in Australia. Starc ensured he didn't get off the mark. Using the wobble-seam delivery he's perfected in the latter stages of his career, he angled into leg on a good length at 142.8kph and nipped it across. One of the greatest players of this generation got turned inside out like a pretzel as he nicked it to third slip.

Not a single delivery in the 35-year-old's first spell was under 140kph, and he had figures of 6-3-17-3. At lunch he had figures of 8-4-24-3, while the rest of Australia's attack had returns of 15-1-76-1.

After lunch he continued his solo carnage. Ben Stokes dropped to one knee, fist on the ground for balance, staring at the pitch in front of him and daring not to look back at his splayed stumps behind. Starc had snaked a ball back through his gate at 140.9kph to spark another almighty roar from the Perth fans. He has now dismissed Stokes 10 times in Test cricket in 22 meetings for a cost of just 190 runs.

His fifth was inevitable. Gus Atkinson meekly nicked to slip. He had claimed all five with his wobble-seam deliveries, nicking three right-handers with balls nipping away, and dismissing two left-handers with balls snaking in. It was a showcase of his skill and development across the course of 101 Tests, to have such a huge impact when then was no trademark conventional swing on offer.

"[The ball] was a bit like a hockey puck," Starc said. "It was out of shape pretty early. I don't think it was going to swing at all. It didn't really stay on axis. So those wobbles seemed to be the one to work for most guys through the day. I've said it before, but two of my best mates are two of the best exponents of it in the world. So to learn off Josh and Pat, I think I said it a while ago, but if I'd listened to those two a bit earlier, might have had it in the repertoire a little bit earlier."

He was gifted the last two wickets for his first career seven-for but it was no less than he deserved. However, by the evening session, his mighty performance had been lost in the chaos of Australia's batting. Jofra Archer saw Starc's low-140kph thunderbolts and raised it up towards 150kph. Brydon Carse borrowed the wobble seam and added steepling bounce to make it unplayable. Stokes added the finishing touches to leave Australia 123 for 9 after another Perth collapse. But Starc refused to throw his batters under the bus.

"I think we often sit here and see, last year it was a 17-wicket day, this year it's 19 wickets, we often sit here and say, it's the wicket or it's the batting, but I think both teams bowled really well," Starc said.

"I'm sure both teams probably want to change, perhaps, their approach. But sometimes you can sit there and say, it's pretty good bowling from both teams."

He's not wrong. The standard of bowling was exceptional. But some of the batting from Australia deserves to be questioned. The shots of Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey and Starc himself were not mistakes forced by great deliveries. They were perhaps forced by the overall pressure England's cadre of quicks created. But it was another example of Australia's batting letting their bowling down. It's left Starc contemplating another big shift on day two off not much rest.

"It is what it is," Starc said. "Sometimes you're faced with that. I've played long enough to have trained the body to need to do that if I have to. Obviously, you always like to sit back and watch your team bat. Sometimes you have short turnarounds.

"It's just the nature of Test cricket and a tough day's work for both batting groups."