Honours shared on rain-interrupted day one

It's difficult to quantify whether England's most competitive day of the Vodafone Ashes Series to date was helped or hampered by Sydney's capricious weather that forced players to duck for cover more often than public health officials.

When stumps were finally called at 6.30pm following the day's fourth rain intrusion, Australia were delicately poised at 3-126 although the visitors were on the charge having claimed two key breakthroughs in the final hour.

During a final session that was intermittently played beneath artificial floodlights and bright sunlight, England snared the wickets of set batters Marcus Harris (38) and Marnus Labuschagne (28) in successive overs, having removed David Warner (30) shortly before tea.

Australia resumes tomorrow with more rain forecast, and not out pair Steve Smith (6) and Usman Khawaja (4) facing another searching examination from wily England seamers James Anderson and Stuart Broad operating in conditions that more closely resemble UK summer.

Khawaja received the day's loudest cheer when he made his way to the middle and the cloud symbolically lifted, with the next-most voluminous coming when the 35-year-old unleashed a trademark pull shot to open his scoring with a boundary from the 13th ball he faced.

It was a not dissimilar to the reception Khawaja enjoyed upon making his Test debut at the same venue and against the same opponent 11 years ago.

But if that match provides a portent, it will bring far greater pleasure to England who fondly recall that final match of their successful 2010-11 Ashes campaign which yielded their most recent win on Australia soil.

That game also began in dodgy Sydney summer weather that restricted day one to 59 overs with Australia 4-134 at stumps, before the tourists went on to complete a thumping win by an innings and 83 runs over the ensuing four days.

As it stands, the improved effort Root beseeched from his already beaten troops prior to this Test couldn't be questioned after today's fightback.

Having sweated under covers prior to play starting, and copping regular dustings of rain throughout the first two sessions, the SCG pitch occasionally offered up extravagant bounce which England's quicks seemed keen to exploit even it cost their team a dozen wides conceded over keeper Jos Buttler's head.

But it was the deliveries pitched fuller that forced Australia's batters to perspire, with few freebies and a damp outfield ensuring the pressure release boundaries provide were few and hard fought.

That toil was best exemplified by Harris who, after seeing his opening partner Warner depart for 30 amid the rain interruptions, went in search of the Test hundred that has eluded him since making his debut in 2018.

Harris was tested by England's two most successful Test seamers and negotiated more than three hours at the crease with just as much time spent in the SCG dressing room as rain fell and mop-up operations took place.

But soon after producing his best shot of the day – an imperious back-foot punch to the cover boundary off Ben Stokes – he was removed by Anderson who slid a ball across the left-hander and had begun celebrating even before Joe Root wrapped his fingers around the catch at slip.

With Steve Smith at the wicket, Root immediately recalled his fastest bowler Mark Wood who has troubled the Australia top-order with raw pace this series, and had the former captain caught behind for 12 in the first innings at Brisbane to begin Smith's comparatively lean series.

The move yielded immediate results, although it was the world's top-ranked Test batter Labuschagne who nicked off for 28 thereby reducing his Test average at the SCG from 95.20 before today to a 'paltry' 84.

Root had earlier become England's most-capped Test skipper, overtaking his predecessor Alastair Cook's tally of 59 matches leading their country and he celebrated the milestone by calling incorrectly at this morning's coin toss.

That result saw Root's toss success rate drop to 58 per cent, which is still better than Cook's 47 per cent and the current captain can also claim a superior winning percentage in Tests (45 per cent) than the previous incumbent's 41 per cent.

But if that ratio was to improve at the SCG, England need to make the sort of immediate inroads their batting has suffered on every outing this summer.

With heavy cloud cover and an even mat of grass on the SCG pitch – albeit shaved to 5mm above ground level, more than half the height of grass on last week's MCG surface – England convinced themselves it might not have been a bad toss to lose.

However, a combination of Australia's opening pair and the stop-start caused by Sydney's traditional new year's rain ensured they were unable to make the early incisions they so earnestly craved and so desperately needed.

It's not that the fourth different iteration of fast bowlers England have fielded in as many Tests bowled badly, or without the luck they needed to gain an early foothold in this match.

Instead, Warner and Harris exercised shrewd judgement in leaving and watchfully defending deliveries from Anderson (who was able to gain appreciable swing) and his long-time new-ball partner Broad (threatening both left-handed batters with his around-the-wicket attack).

The veteran England pair opened the bowling together for the 102nd time in Tests for England, almost twice the record of the next-most durable new-ball pairing of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis who did it 53 times for Pakistan.

The England duo have been most effective in the sort of conditions that prevailed this morning, save perhaps for Sydney's sub-tropical summer humidity, but no sooner had they settled into rhythm the first rain interruption arrived 20 minutes into the day.

By the time the next shower swept through and early lunch was taken after 12.3 overs, the openers had survived the new-ball onslaught and added 30 runs in the process with Warner finding his stride courtesy of three drives finding the off-side boundary.

But apart from an enthusiastic lbw shout against Warner off Anderson – subsequently shown to be missing leg stump – no genuine opportunities were created in the abbreviated first session by which time Stokes and Wood had entered the attack.

Root persisted with his first-change pairing after lunch even though Anderson and Broad had enjoyed an hour-long enforced rest, a decision made even more curious when Broad eventually did return and immediately claimed Warner's wicket.

And the haunting familiarity of that dismissal only compounded confusion as to why Broad was overlooked for the series opener at the Gabba given the torment he inflicted on the Australia left-hander during the 2019 Ashes when he removed him seven times in 10 innings that yielded 95 runs.

Angling the ball in from around the wicket, Broad marginally pulled back his length and coaxed Warner into another of those drives only to have the ball straighten the edge fly shoulder-high to Zak Crawley who clasped it in awkward but effective 'crocodile' fashion.

Broad now has Warner's wicket 13 times in the 25 Tests.

In Ashes contests, Alec Bedser is the only England bowler to have held a greater level of mastery over an Australia rival having claimed the wicket of left-handed opener Arthur Morris 18 times in 21 Tests between 1946 and 1954.

The all-time 'bunny' record in Tests remains Glenn McGrath's domination of ex-England skipper Michael Atherton who succumbed 19 times to Australia's most successful seamer in just 17 matches.

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nic Maddinson, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: Australia won by nine wickets

Second Test: Australia won by 275 runs

Third Test: Australia won by an innings and 14 runs

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Blundstone Arena