The Ashes: Aussies desperate for answers as Poms press home advantage on Day 2 in Perth

The swings and roundabouts of Test cricket.

A blistering half-hour of carnage from Scott Boland and Mitchell Starc had put Australia in the driver’s seat of the Test match midway through the second session on day two of the Ashes opener in Perth.

By the time their innings ended and tea was called, England had slammed their way back into the contest.

A 50-run partnership between tailenders — but handy batters — Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse lifted the visitors to a score of 164 and a lead of 205 before Australia begins the final innings of the match in just its sixth session.

Carse and Atkinson struck four of the first five sixes of the match and their milestone took just 29 minutes and 34 deliveries.

That came after Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Harry Brook were among the crucial England batters to fall in the middle-session mayhem.

Australia appear set to chase the runs with a cloud hanging over Usman Khawaja. The veteran will not open the batting because he spent a significant period of the second session off the ground receiving treatment for the back spasms he first suffered on Friday.

The barely-believable contest had another flash point when England wicketkeeper Jamie Smith was given out by the third umpire on a controversial review.

Snicko showed a spike, but the noise didn’t match up with the vision of the ball passing Smith’s arm and bat.

Ashes cult hero Boland and man of the moment Starc hauled Australia back into the Test.

Boland — lamented in the first innings for a poor spell of bowling — removed Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope and Harry Brook in two-and-a-half overs.

Then Starc removed Joe Root just balls later in a moment of carnage for England that ramped up the heat on the former captain for his poor record in Australia.

England captain Stokes became Starc’s 10th victim of a remarkable Test match performance.

They could have had four wickets in nine balls, if not for a dropped catch by sore veteran Usman Khawaja at first slip that gave Stokes a life before he scored.

He made it to just two before he was caught at slip by Steve Smith after Starc had swung back to the member’s end.

Boland had battled to find his length on the opening day in a new role as the opening bowler. He overpitched consistently in one of his worst performances for Australia.

But he found a better length on a bouncy Perth wicket right away.

“I think the fact that Scott Boland’s predominantly been a first-change bowler, maybe with the brand-new ball yesterday he felt he had to get it up there and try to get the ball to swing a little bit more,” Ricky Ponting told the Channel 7 coverage.

“Normally when he comes into the attack, there’s no swing in there. So he can just lock himself into that length that Copes was talking about. Just starting to look like he’s getting his rhythm back a little bit better now.”

Duckett — who had survived an lbw review on the ball before lunch — was caught by Steve Smith after Boland caught his outside edge.

The bustling Victorian struck again when Pope — who had not committed the sin in his two sound-looking knocks in the match — tried driving away from his body and to a good length ball that then flew away to the cordon ended his efforts on 33.

“Driving on the up here in Perth, this has been going on for decades, not just for this Test series. Very, very poor batting by England,” former Australian coach Justin Langer said.

A lively Optus Stadium crowd flicked the switch into pandemonium when Root chopped on to Starc for eight. That’s after a first-innings duck.

Root’s dismissal was Starc’s second wicket after he flew to his left to take a stunning caught-and-bowled that subjected opener Zak Crawley to a pair.

Crawley’s wicket meant this is the first match in Test cricket where the score has been 1-0 in all of the first three innings.

Australia have not used spinner Nathan Lyon in this innings after the veteran copped a blow to the hip and spent the first six overs of their bowling innings off the ground. He was in visible discomfort after returning to the field.

That comes after Khawaja was unable to open the batting on Friday because he spent time off the ground with back spasms. Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins are both sidelined for this Test by injury and there is a growing expectation Hazlewood could miss the entire series.

“It’s like the cast of The Walking Dead,” former Australian quick Damien Fleming said on SEN.

The hosts entered the day nine wickets down. Lyon and debutant Brendan Doggett scratched out nine extra runs on top of the overnight score of 9-123. Doggett scored his first runs in Test cricket before he was dropped at short-leg by Pope on two and finished unbeaten on seven off 30 deliveries.