Ashes: Michael Vaughan 'staggered' by England's move to drop pacer with 524 Test wickets

On a very thrilling first day of the Ashes, the England cricket team were bowled out by Australia for 147 runs within 50.1 overs. England had little chance with the Aussie pace lineup picking up the wickets. However, former England cricketer Michael Vaughan was shocked to see England drop one of their best bowlers, a player with 524 Test wickets, Stuart Broad. This was the first time England have gone into an Ashes Test without the legendary of Broad or Jimmy Anderson.

Vaughan wrote on his Twitter that the Gabba pitch is a good one and added that England's Test batting lineup has not been able to cope on pitches like the one they were batting on for a long time. He then said that he was 'staggered' not to see Stuart Broad in the playing XI given that the current pitch would have suited his bowling style.

"A juicy pitch at GABBA .. Done more than I have ever seen it in my time watching Ashes cricket .. England's test batting for a long time hasn’t coped on these kinds of pitches .. also staggered no (Stuart) Broad on this kind of surface," wrote Michael Vaughan on Twitter.

Australia vs England 1st Test: Day 1 Recap

In Pat Cummins first match as Australia's skipper, he lost the toss and Joe Root chose to bat first after assessing his options. However, the move worked in favour of the Aussies as on the very first ball Rory Joseph Burns was bowled out by Mitchell Starc after a stunning delivery. The pressure was on after that moment as the Aussie pace attack was just too much to handle for the England cricket team. In fact, such was the pitch that between the fourth and the sixth over, not a single run was scored. Dawid Malan was dismissed at the 3.2 over mark with England at 11/2 and then skipper Root was dismissed at the 5.5 over mark with the score still the same at 11/3. Ollie Pope and Jos Buttler tried their best to hold down the fort but they too had to walk back having scored 35 and 39 runs respectively. Australian skipper Cummins was in sensational form as he finished the first innings with five wickets at an economy rate of 2.89.