England chose to bat first in the first Ashes Test in Perth on Friday – though it might have quickly rued the decision with Australia’s Mitchell Starc notching up three wickets in the first hour.

“England in disarray, Starc on fire – what a morning,” commentator Kerry O’Keeffe said on Fox Cricket after Starc saw off champion England batter Joe Root for a duck.

He’d already claimed the wickets of opener Zak Crawley (also for zero) and Ben Duckett (21).

After Stokes, surprisingly, chose to bat first after winning the toss, England limped to lunch at 4-105.

No.3 Ollie Pope and the aggressive Harry Brook (28*) went about trying to salvage England’s innings, coming together at 3-39.

But after being hit for 10 runs, Cameron Green trapped Pope (46) lbw with the final ball of his first over.

Making matters worse for England is Pope and Duckett burned two of their three reviews.

Stokes (4*) joined Brook in the middle, the pair making it to the break.

A Perth record crowd of 43,591 was already in the stadium to see Starc claim a wicket in the first over of a Test for the 24th time.

Starc getting Root caught in slips took him to 100 Ashes dismissals, and 405 in his career.

“This guy is a bowler of the ages and we’ve taken him for granted for so long,” former Australia spinner Kerry O’Keeffe said on Fox Cricket.

Without captain Pat Cummins and fellow injured quick Josh Hazlewood, Starc became the clear leader of Australia’s pace attack.

As promised, England went about attacking Scott Boland (0-39 from seven overs), who opened the bowling with Starc.

Smith takes down England spinner’s quiz disaster

The Ashes clash got off to an unofficial start earlier with Australia captain Steve Smith hitting back after former England spinner Monty Panesar urged players to use “sandpaper-gate”.

Opposition fans have never let Smith, who accepted a 12-month ban for his role in the infamous ball-tampering saga in South Africa, forget the darkest moment in his career by opposition fans.

“Ben Stokes and the England team have got to make Steve Smith feel guilty and play on that,” Panesar told Aceodds.com of the infamous 2018 Newlands Test.

On Thursday, however, Smith hit the comments back for six. The 36-year-old brought up Panesar’s ill-fated appearance on the British version of TV quiz show Mastermind in 2019.

“Who of you in the room have seen Mastermind and Monty Panesar on that? Any of you?” he quipped to a packed press conference at Perth Stadium.

“Those of you who have, you’ll understand where I’m coming from. And those of you who haven’t, do yourself a favour because it’s pretty comical.

“Anyone that believes that Athens is in Germany, that’s a start.

“Oliver Twist is a season of the year, and America is a city.

“Doesn’t really bother me, those comments.”

Panesar, who played 50 Tests for England between 2006 and 2013, did indeed give all those unfortunate answers Smith referred to.

He replied Athens when asked where Germany’s national football team played international matches until 2001. America was Panesar’s question to an answer about the city where TV show Cheers was set.

His third last question was: “In an 1819 poem, what season of the year does Keats describe as ‘a season of mist and mellow fruitfulness’?”

Panesar replied: Oliver Twist.

On hearing of Smith’s response, Panesar felt he must have touched a nerve with the Aussie great.

“It’s an interesting one. I think it’s still in his head, 100 per cent,” said Panesar.

“I find it so funny that he’s memorised the questions and answers. The best way to deviate from it is say something completely funny, comical, what I did on the show and it will move everything on.

“If I was in the England team right now, I’d be thinking, ‘Monty’s just given us a piece of ammunition that we can use on Steve Smith’.”

-with AAP