England vs Australia – Ashes LIVE: David Warner’s out as he edges Chris Woakes’ ball to Jonny Bairstow in a big breakthrough – with tourists two down on Day One

Follow Mail Sport’s live blog for Day One of the fourth Ashes Test between England and Australia at Old Trafford. 

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England keep the pressure on Australia with another low-scoring over. Anderson bowls a maiden to Australia’s No 3 and No 4.

Ben Stokes will be eager to find another breakthrough during this low-scoring spell…

A neat and tidy over as far as Woakes is concerned, who follows up his wicket-taking over with a solid series of deliveries to Labuschagne and Smith.

Australia’s No 3 takes his tally to 19 with a single off the over.

Labuschagne keeps the scoreboard ticking with a single off Wood, who continues to bowl at over 90mph.

Smith, perhaps learning from his early show of aggression, ducks, defends and leaves the next few deliveries before tapping the the ball for a single.

Labuschagne returns the favour to keep strike for the next over.

Smith pulls his first ball for four and is extremely lucky to evade Wood at fine leg. 

England were not expecting that aggression from Smith this early, and Wood was five metres or so in from the boundary edge. It has to go down as a missed chance…

At the end of the exciting over, Woakes ends with the wicket of Warner, and Australia add four runs to the total.

Woakes pitches one up and baits a shot out of Warner, who edges behind to Bairstow for a simple catch. Big breakthrough for England!

Wood finishes his over and finds a thick outside edge from Labuschagne – but the No 3 gets lucky as it fires between third slip and gully for four.

Despite taking drinks early, the problem has still not been fixed – and Stuart Broad has headed over the crowd to sort it out.

Light is reflecting off a bar near the crowd directly behind the bowler’s head, and Broad asks the supporters to stand in the seats which will block out the sun. He gives a thumbs up to the umpires and we’re now ready to go again.

Well done Broady!

Warner and Labuschagne run well again to pick up two on the leg side – forcing Wood to change approach and bowl from around the wicket.

The opener immediately takes his tally to 32 with another single on the leg side, and Labuschagne keeps the pressure on England with a beautiful shot through mid-wicket to the boundary.

The over is cut short as the umpires sort out an issue in the batter’s eye-line. The players pause for a drinks break.

Warner’s eyes light up as Woakes bowls a full delivery on the off side, but the batter only drives through the covers for two.

Eager to bait another shot out of Warner, Woakes continues to bowl outside off stump and is rewarded with a wild swing-and-miss off the penultimate ball of the over.

The batter manages to avoid the edge and punches a quick single off the back foot off the last ball to end the over.

Labuschagne catches Stokes’ at leg slip on his shin – leaving the captain in some pain – before Wood bowls a 90mph rocket past Bairstow on the leg side for four byes.

England continue to leak a lot of extras – as they did in Leeds – as Australia edge closer to the 50-run mark.

Warner continues positively and punishes a short ball from Woakes to the square leg boundary, picking up four more.

Otherwise, Woakes keeps things neat and tidy – losing just the boundary off the over.

Warner and Labuschagne risk three runs and get away with it, with the latter diving to survive Ben Stokes’ powerful throw from the boundary. 

It gives Wood an opportunity to attack Labuschagne – but it’s Bairstow who is worst off by the end of the over, as the wicket-keeper fails to catch a 91mph delivery and hurts his finger in the process. 

Australia keep the runs ticking and end the over on 39-1.

Warner – perhaps breathing a sigh of relief after seeing the back of Broad – knocks the first delivery back to Woakes, who brings a cheer from the Old Trafford crowd as he chips the ball up his feet.

Woakes keeps things very tight in his first over and invites a couple of inside edges from Warner’s bat, although there were no lucky bounces towards the stumps on this occasion.

The batter grabs a single off the final ball.

Warner beats Moeen Ali at gully and picks up three to put Labuschagne on strike.

Anderson’s gameplan to Australia’s No 3 is clear – keep bowling outside off stump and eventually nip one back into the pads in the hope of getting him LBW.

Labuschagne stays strong at the crease though, seeing out the over.

Broad looks to bait an edge of Labuschagne as he continues to bowl in the corridor of uncertainty, and the batter counterattacks with an excellent drive to the boundary.

Broad then bowls a no-ball, adding one to the total, before Labuschagne knocks two more down to mid-off.

The frustrating over for England ends with four byes, as the ball flies past Bairstow to the boundary.

After Warner rotates the strike with a leg-bye, Anderson follows up Broad’s wicket-taking over with a teasing series of deliveries outside off-stump to Labuschagne, who’s struggled to impress so far in the Ashes.

The No 3 does well to keep his eye on the ball and block out the over, nudging the last ball for a single.

Khawaja plays the second ball square for two, but Broad responds well with three teasing deliveries outside the Aussie’s off-stump.

His persistence pays off with an excellent delivery on to the opener’s pads, and he finds the breakthrough again with the first wicket of the innings.

Broad gets Khawaja LBW with the final ball of his over! The batter sends it upstairs but loses his review after ball-tracking shows it would have gone on to hit the stumps.

England get their man!

Anderson finds the edge off Warner but the opener survives as the ball carries wide of fourth slip and heads to the boundary for four.

Warner wears two successive deliveries on the pads, with the second hugely tempting England to appeal, but Stokes doesn’t send it upstairs. It proves the right decision in the end.

The opener relieves the pressure with a couple on the off-side – but that’s an excellent over from Anderson despite six conceded.

Warner doesn’t hang about at other end and pushes a quick single to get off strike, leaving Khawaja to deal with Broad.

England appeal on the third delivery as Broad hits Khawaja on the pads, but it’s rightly waved away by the umpires with the ball clearly heading down leg side.

Broad fails to hit his mark as he bowls well wide of off stump, but Khawaja isn’t baited into a shot and happily sees out the rest of the over.

Anderson takes the ball on his home ground and bowls the second over of the morning.

He starts with an impressive maiden to Khawaja, who doesn’t mind soaking up deliveries at the start of his innings.

Warner crunches the first ball for four, smashing Broad’s loose first delivery off the back foot through the covers to the boundary.

The bowler follows it up with a dot ball and then a loose full toss, which Warner clips down to fine leg for a single.

Khawaja gets off the mark with the penultimate ball of the over, tapping it off his pads towards mid-on for one.

Solid first over for Australia.

After Australia and England stand tall for their national anthems, the umpires head to their positions ready for the first ball of the day, with Jerusalem ringing out in the background. 

It’s Stuart Broad who will kick off proceedings against David Warner and Usman Khawaja at Old Trafford.

Both sides are heading out to pitch and we’re minutes away from the first session at Old Trafford.

Here’s how the players looked gearing up for this morning in Manchester…

How should Stokes and Cummins approach the Test tactically? What will the batsmen need to be aware of at the crease? How much swing, turn and bounce can the bowlers get out of the pitch? And what’s it like for fans around the ground?

Mail Sport’s DAVID LLOYD shares his guide to Old Trafford ahead of the crucial fourth Test…

With England choosing to bowl, it means the fourth Test will start off with another battle between Stuart Broad and David Warner. 

The Australian opener has continued to struggle against Broad this series, now losing his wicket 17 times to the seam bowler throughout his career, and a quickfire dismissal would certainly erupt the Old Trafford crowd early on.

But Warner, who will step out to the crease in just over 20 minutes, urged earlier this week that Broad ‘isn’t in his head’ as he looks to put together his first big score of the series.

Read more below.

Ben Stokes wins the toss again and chooses to bowl.

The pitch looks good but with a bit of cloud overhead it could be the right decision for Stokes’ veteran bowling attack. Having said that, no side has ever won a Test match at Old Trafford having bowled first…

Pat Cummins admits that he too would have bowled first had he won the toss, but will it prove the correct call?

What was that, Nass? Doesn’t look like Ben Stokes is listening!

The England captain insists his side are prepared to go even more attacking than usual in order to get the win they need at Old Trafford.

‘We’re desperate to win this series and desperate to win this game,’ said Stokes. ‘But regardless of where we are at the end of the Oval Test, this whole period of how we’ve been playing isn’t going to stop there.’

Read more below.

The weather forecast does not look good as far as England are concerned, with plenty of rain expected over the next five days. Should the Test end in a draw, it would end the hosts’ hope of winning the Ashes.

But Mail Sport’s NASSER HUSSAIN insists that Ben Stokes should not go for broke too early against Australia, adopting a patient approach to his tactics despite the success of ‘Bazball’ over the last year…

It’s never easy when you’re trying to plan for a must-win game, as England are in Manchester this week, and the forecast isn’t great. And it could well bring to the fore the creative skills of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes — especially as Australia only need a draw to retain the urn.

I appreciate they’re good at pushing the game forward, and doing funky things when they think it’s necessary. But some of the old-school principles still apply in a situation like this — and that’s not just the gnarled old Test captain in me talking.

Read more below.

Cricket coach and former Australian bowler JASON GILLESPIE insists he would have played Todd Murphy, who has been dropped by captain Pat Cummins at Old Trafford…

If Todd Murphy was truly picked to fill the role vacated by Nathan Lyon, then why was he not bowled for more than two overs on the last day at Headingley by Pat Cummins?

Certainly, I would have expected the Australia captain to use his off-spinner in those key moments of the England run-chase had Lyon been there. So it’s not a great surprise to me that Australia have left Murphy out of Wednesday’s fourth Test.

Is that a trust issue? Is Cummins not sure whether Murphy has what it takes? Or was he just protecting his young spinner in Leeds when he was up against some really good, aggressive England batsmen? It is an interesting debate, particularly as on Wednesday Australia are going into a match without a specialist spinner for the first time in Test cricket since 2012.

Read more below.

Ben Stokes only makes one change to his line-up – Anderson for Robinson – which means Moeen Ali is likely to continue batting at three to provide cover for favoured No 4 Joe Root.

Meanwhile, Australia have dropped Todd Murphy to allow Cameron Green a way back into the side, keeping Mitchell Marsh after his impressive century-making performance at Headingley.

ENGLAND: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Moeen Ali, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (C), Jonny Bairstow (WK), Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson

AUSTRALIA: Usman Khawaja, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (WK), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (C), Josh Hazlewood 

Hello!

The Ashes is back after a 10-day wait between third and fourth Test, and if the series continues to deliver as it has so far, we could be in for another treat over the next five days.

England will look to continue their fight back today, having clawed the series back to 2-1 at Headingley last time out, and will hope to carve out a win at Old Trafford to keep the Ashes alive.

Jimmy Anderson returns for England as Ollie Robinson makes way, with the veteran looking to bounce back after a disappointing first two Tests at Edgbaston and Lord’s.

We’ll be here throughout the five days to bring you all the latest coverage from Old Trafford. Stay tuned!

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