The Ashes 1st Test Day 1 Highlights: Australia 14/0 at Stumps after England declare on 393/8

Right after he hit Nathan Lyon down the ground for four, Pope falls. Big shout for LBW, the umpire shakes his head but Lyon looked extremely confident. Carey also reckons it's worth a look and Cummins goes upstairs. As it turns out, it was three reds and Pope falls. 

Pope lbw b Lyon 31 (44), England 92/2 in 18 overs

The fourth ball of the 15th had whistled past Crawley's outside edge. An over later, replays show that it had taken a little feather edge from the bat. Not even an appeal from Australia. Wonder if they have been bludgeoned into submission already. England are in ODI mode, 79/1 in 16 overs.

The run rate is creeping back up. Australia are not being helped by the fact that this wicket is utterly docile. Crawley ends the 13th with a drive on the up through the mid off. Crawley is on 35 off 38, Pope on 19 off 30.

Crawley with a lovely shot through extra cover for four off the fifth ball of the 11th bowled by Boland. Crawley ends that over on 28 off 31, Pope on 15 off 25.

Scott Boland replaces Pat Cummins. He was nightmarish for England in the last Ashes in Australia and he was brilliant against India last week in the WTC final. Interesting to see how England approach this. Australia 40/1 in 9 overs

The run rate has dropped off a cliff since the wicket of Duckett.Crawley is on 15 off 20, Pope on five off 12. England won't mind this at all though. 

Caught behind off the very next ball! Hazlewood goes back of a length and wide, Duckett hands his bat out, thick inside edge and a good low catch from Alex Carey.

Duckett c Carey b Hazlewood 12 (10), England 22/1

Duckett trying to play Hazlewood square but there wasn't quite the kind of room that he expected there. Almost chops on and it runs behind for a boundary.

England are wasting no time putting pressure on Australia here. Cummins with a delivery on the hips and Duckett tucks it away with brilliant timing to square leg. Australia are just too defensive at the moment on a pitch that Mike Atherton says is a batting paradise.

First ball is full on leg from Hazlewood and Crawley clips it away. Good balance and the Edgbaston crowd loves it.

Just a single off the over after that first ball four. Josh Hazlewood comes in for the second over with all sorts of question marks over his fitness.

Pat Cummins steams in for the first ball, Zak Crawley on strike with Ben Ducket at the other end. Remember the first ball of the first Ashes Test in Australia last time around? Rory Burns bowled around his legs by Mitchell Starc? Well, here Zak Crawley despatches the first ball to the boundary. Replays showed that even Ben Stokes was rather stunned by that. 

The two teams have lined up for their national anthems before that, a minute's silence in honour of the victims of the horrific Nottingham attacks. Both teams are wearing black arm bands as well. Before that, former England captain Alastair Cook came out to the middle with the Ashes Urn in his hands. 

Either England would be about six wickets down by Lunch at the very least or they would have scored somewhere around 180 runs with one of their players scoring at least a half century with a strike rate over 100, if not more than that. That, is how Bazball works.

Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (C), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Moeen Ali, Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad, James Anderson

David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (C), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Scott Boland

It is Hazlewood, Boland and Cummins that they have gone for. Starc was pretty good against India in the WTC final but the fact that he was pretty much the worst performer among the pacers despite that shows just how good Australia were in that game. England, of course, had declared their eleven yesterday. 

England captain Stokes won the toss and opted to bat.

Toss is coming up (3:00 PM IST) as England, face Australia in the Ashes opener!

England already announced their playing XI on Wednesday. Here is their playing XI:

Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Moeen Ali, Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad, James Anderson

Speaking to The ICC Review, England legend Hussain said, "I can't see many draws simply because of the way England are playing, they're trying to take the draw out of the equation."

"Australia in Australia, England have got hammered. Australia in England, Australia haven't won here, won an Ashes series since 2001, but they've always been close. I'm going to go 3-2 to England", he further added.

Ahead of the Ashes series, Smith said, "We had a great last week winning the Test championship. It was two years of hard work that went into it. It was a really proud moment for all the boys but yeah, the Ashes, for Australia and England cricketers, is the pinnacle. We work for it throughout our life, so it's going to be exciting."

Hailing the Ashes series, he said, "Just the history of it. Australia and England, it's the biggest series. It's the one who want to do really well in, and hope your team has success. The way England have been in playing, the way we have been playing, it's going to be exciting series. The boys can't wait to get into it."

Boland was in fiery form in the WTC final, destroying Indian batters with ease. Against England, he will have a battle against Root, who he has dismissed four times in only 74 balls.

Smith needs more 53 runs to become the fourth Aussie to complete 9000 Test runs. If he does that in the first innings, he will the joint-quickest alongside Sangakkara (172 innings) to reach the milestone.