Ashes 2017/18: 5 Talking points from Australia's Gabba win

England's new boys flourish while the old guard flounders

If there was a doubt about how James Vince and Mark Stoneman would perform, they answered it in style

While Matthew Hayden's comments regarding not knowing half the England squad might have been way off the mark, he certainly wasn't wrong about the inexperience of the England top-order. Barring Root and Cook, no other batsman in the top five had played more than 10 Tests in their career.

If there was a doubt about how James Vince, Mark Stoneman and Dawid Malan would perform, they answered it in style as they all scored a fifty on their Ashes debut. However, the experienced performers failed to step up. Alastair Cook didn't get to double digits in the game, Root couldn't convert his start into a big score like his opposite number.

Arguably, more worrying for England would be the performance of the seamers. While Broad and Anderson picked up five wickets, they couldn't drive home the advantage. The support from Chris Woakes and Jake Ball was almost non-existent. If England are to claw their way back into the Ashes, they need their seasoned campaigners to step up.