Usman Khawaja did not open the batting for Australia in the first Ashes Test in a bizarre error that exposed his teammates to England’s opening bowlers.
England were bowled out for a dismal 172 as Mitchell Starc brilliantly took seven wickets on the first day at the Perth Stadium.
But there was a surprise when Australia’s preferred No 3, Marnus Labuschagne, came out to open with debutant Jake Weatherald instead of Khawaja.
Khawaja had been off the field at the end of England’s innings for “toilet breaks and stretching”, according to ABC Sport. He was off for too long and failed to return before the last English wicket fell, which meant he wasn’t allowed to open the batting.
Rules state that he must then stay off the pitch for 10 minutes, which meant Khawaja couldn’t come in at No 3 when a nervy Weatherald was out LBW second ball to Jofra Archer.
Steve Smith came in an No 3 and would not have been thanking his experienced teammate Khawaja for an error that exposed his captain to the new ball – although Smith and Labuschagne put up some initial resistance against Archer and Gus Atkinson.
Earlier, Starc recorded his 17th five-wicket haul on Friday and sent England’s batting unit into disarray on day one of the first Ashes test at Perth Stadium.
Leading the attack superbly in the absence of captain Pat Cummins and stalwart Josh Hazlewood, Starc recorded figures of 5-54, his fifth Ashes “five-fer”, midway through the second session as he helped reduce England to 168-7.
The 35-year-old fast bowler got Australia’s Ashes defence off to the perfect start in the first over of the day, dismissing Zak Crawley for a duck.
He followed up by trapping Ben Duckett lbw for 21 and having Joe Root caught for a duck. Ben Stokes departed for six, clean-bowled by a 141 kph inswinger before Gus Atkinson was swallowed up in the slips cordon for one.