A century from the returning Travis Head saw Australia recover from 12/3 to post almost 250 on the opening day of the first ever Ashes Test at Hobart.
Teams
Australia make one change from the drawn game in Sydney last week with Travis Head returning to the middle order in place of opener Marcus Harris with Usman Khawaja moving to open following his pair of centuries in Sydney.
England make 5 changes with Rory Burns, Ollie Pope, Sam Billings making his debut (becoming the 700th player to play Test matches for England), Chris Woakes and Ollie Robinson coming into the team for Haseeb Hameed, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Jack Leach and James Anderson.
Australia: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins (capt), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland
England: Rory Burns, Zak Crawley, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (capt), Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Sam Billings (wk), Chris Woakes, Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood, Stuart Broad
England won the toss and elected to field first.
Morning Session
The first wicket would fall off the final ball of the sixth over as Warner would edge to Crawley at second slip off the bowling of Robinson without scoring before Khawaja would follow his fellow opener, caught at first slip by captain Root off the bowling of Broad (pictured below) for 6. Smith would be the second player to get out without scoring, another catch to Crawley off the bowling of Robinson before Labuschagne would be bowled by Broad for 44 with Head and Green 31 and 2 not out respectively as Australia finished the session 85/4.
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Afternoon Session
The second session of the day would see Australia continue their fightback with Head (pictured below) completing his century off 112 balls before being dismissed the following ball, caught by Robinson off the bowling of Woakes, for 101. Australia getting to 215/5 at tea with Green and Carey 57 and 1 not out respectively.
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Evening Session
Green (pictured below) would be caught on the boundary by Crawley off the bowling of Wood for 74 with only 7.3 overs of play possible before the rain came in – Carey and Starc sitting on 10 and 0 not out when we resume tomorrow.
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AUS 241/6 (59.3 overs) TEA