After the Australian left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc thrashed the English batter with his career-best seven-wicket haul on the opening day of the Ashes 2025-26, English captain Ben Stokes and the other pacers controlled the game by destroying the Aussie batters on the first day. 

Ben Stokes shines with ball after Mitchell Starc's storm

In the Perth Test, after England chose to bat first, the visitors were all out for 172 runs, where Mitchell Starc delivered his career-best bowling figures 12.5-4-58-7.

In reply, England bowlers took regular wickets, as Australia ended the opening day at 123/9, while the first day of the Test series experienced 19 wickets in total.  

Watch: Brydon Carse dismisses Usman Khawaja on 2 during 1st Ashes 2025/26 Test in Perth

Ben Stokes records first fifer as English captain in The Ashes after 43 years

In Australia’s first innings, while the English pacers Jofra Archer (2/11) and Brydon Carse (2/45) took two wickets each to secure the first four wickets, the English skipper Ben Stokes took the next five wickets, as he ended the day with the bowling figures of 6-1-23-5.  

Travis Head (21) was the first victim of Stokes, and then he dismissed Cameron Green (24), Mitchell Starc (12),  Alex Carey (26), and Scot Boland (0). His last three wickets came in his last seven balls of the day. 

Stokes became only the sixth English captain to record a five-wicket haul in the Ashes history. While Bob Willis was the previous English captain to achieve it in the 1982 Brisbane Test, Stokes recorded it after 43 years. Stokes became the fifth English captain to record a five-wicket haul in the Ashes history in Australia. 

England captains with a five-wicket haul in The Ashes