Literally the first ball of the entire series
Shane Warne was served a heavy portion of humble pie just one ball into this winter’s Ashes series, as Mitchell Starc bowled out Rory Burns for a golden duck at the Gabba.
Warne, who boasts 708 Test wickets for Australia, has been vocal in his criticism of Starc, and recently doubled down on his call to drop the left-arm fast bowler for the opening Test in Brisbane.
Starc went into this series off the back of an underwhelming summer with the Australian team, proving an expensive bowling option, averaging 40.72 across four Test matches. He also leaked runs at Australia’s victorious T20 World Cup, prompting Warne to call for Jhye Richardson to take his place in the attack.
“He [Starc] needs to find a bit of rhythm and some form,” Warne said, days before the first Test.
“He had a really poor World Cup. He’s just not bowling well enough.
“It’s too important at the Gabba. I’m all for Jhye Richardson[replacing Starc.]”
The former spinner was then made to look foolish as Starc unleashed a full, in-swinging delivery to send Burns walking with the first ball of the entire series.
It’s going to be a long month, folks #Ashes pic.twitter.com/82vFVL872r
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOE_UK) December 8, 2021
Warne even appeared reluctant to praise Starc for the delivery, denying the evidence in front of his eyes that there was any swing on the ball.
Shane Warne: “I don’t think there’s any swing is there? There’s no swing!”#Ashes
📸 Fox Cricket pic.twitter.com/aQQ5TYbUGj
— Nic Savage (@nic_savage1) December 8, 2021
Twitter of course did its thing and trolled Warne for his inexplicably petty refusal to acknowledge Starc’s excellent bowling.
https://twitter.com/Adrian_Poly/status/1468371573857947649
Warne did at least recognise the wicket happened in his tweet after the first day’s play.
Day 1 at #GABBA had it all. The toss. Aust would have batted first if they won it too.Was a good toss to lose. Starc first ball knocks over Burns. Green’s 1st test wicket, Hazlewood relentless & then the skipper @patcummins30 5 fa ! Nothing like #ashes Hurry up day 2 @FoxCricket
— Shane Warne (@ShaneWarne) December 8, 2021
That wicket saw England experience the all too familiar batting collapse. After 5.4 overs, they were already three wickets down for just 12 runs. Burns’ opening partner Haseeb Hameed dug in to rack up a respectable 25, with Ollie Pope and Jos Buttler scoring over 30 runs each, which spared England from a true humiliation.
But Joe Root will be concerned by the fragility of his batting line up, as he, Ben Stokes, Burns and Dawid Malan scored a combined 11 runs between them.
England were all out for 147 on Day One before rain stopped Australia from opening their first innings. Play will resume at midnight tonight.
