Mitchell Starc expresses confidence in Ashes comeback as ex-England skipper labels Aussies 'vulnerable'

Mitchell Starc credited England's "airspeed" but expressed confidence in Australia's ability to comeback, after a chaotic opening day of the Ashes.

Day one lived up to the pre-series hype, with pace bowlers dominating on a sunny day in front of more than 51,000 spectators at Perth Stadium.

Starc took a career-best 7-58 as Australia bundled England out by the second session. Jofra Archer took a wicket in the first over of Australia's reply to show the five-man England pace arsenal wasn't to be outdone.

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Archer took the first two wickets and Brydon Carse took the next two to have Australia reeling at 4-31

Travis Head and Cam Green combined in a 45-run fourth-wicket stand to revive Australia's innings before Ben Stokes broke through.

He dismissed Head (21), Green (24), Alex Carey (26) and Starc (12) to rip through the middle order before getting Scott Boland (0) in the next-to-last over to return 5-23 in six overs for the day.

The home team was 9-123 at stumps, still 49 runs behind.

Starc tipped his cap to the English pace attack.

"It can happen sometimes," he said.

"As I said, (there were) two pretty good bowling attacks (and) credit should go to both attacks, I would say. I mean, I thought we bowled pretty well.

"They've hit us with some extra airspeed and I thought they bowled pretty nicely, so I think it's just one of those days where you get two attacks that are on the money for the whole day and we sit here with 19 wickets down.

"It's two innings of cricket. There is a long time left in this series and in this game."

As the match wears on and the pitch changes, Starc said he wouldn't rule out a similar performance to his opening foray.

"Sometimes you are faced with that. I've played long enough to have trained the body to need to do that if I have to.

"Obviously you always like to sit back and watch your team bat, but sometimes you have short turnarounds.

"There'll be other days where we're in the field for a long time. It's just the nature of Test cricket and (it was) a tough day's work for both batting groups."

However, former England captain was uncertain about Australia's chances of repeating a dominant performance with the ball.

"If England don't win this Test match, having been 160 for five on a juicy deck, that is where the Test match may have been lost for England," he told Fox Sports.

"But they've got a bowling attack that you would think on this pitch, I can't imagine Australia going to chase much more than 200 unless it flattens out.

"And I can't see it flattening out so slowly and the hard thing for Australia might be getting 10 wickets in the second innings. Starccy can't do it all. He is going to need some backup."

A 55-run fourth-wicket stand between Ollie Pope (46) and Harry Brook (52) for England was the biggest partnership of day one.

England's attacking intent kept with the "Bazball" method under Brendon McCullum's coaching, aiming to score quickly and make the bowlers wilt.

The team batting first has won all five Tests played at Perth Stadium and that was a heavy factor in Stokes deciding to go against his preferred option of bowling first and chasing.

Vaughan labelled the opening batters on both sides "vulnerable".

"Australia's top three are vulnerable. England's top three are dangerous but vulnerable as well," he added.

"I just look at both bowling attacks and England have an attack this week that's got the batters out of trouble, because the batting from England at times was very expansive and great, but towards the back when you lose 5 for 12, if they continue to do that and allow Australia in when they're not dominating the game, it will be a problem."