England skittled out shell-shocked Australia for 60 and piled up 274 for four in reply to take control of the fourth Ashes test on a dramatic first day at Trent Bridge on Thursday.

A rampant Stuart Broad took eight wickets as the tourists were dismissed before lunch, while Joe Root (124 not out) and Jonny Bairstow (74) batted England into a commanding position.

The hosts, 2-1 up in the series and without their leading bowler James Anderson, needed only 18.3 overs to run through the touring side who collapsed to their joint sixth-lowest Ashes total in just over 90 minutes.

Broad struck five times in his first four overs, claiming his 300th test victim with the third ball of the morning when he had opener Chris Rogers caught at first slip by Alastair Cook for a duck.

Steven Smith, on six, edged the last ball of the first over to Root in the slips and David Warner (zero) nicked his second delivery from Mark Wood to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler, leaving the Australians in tatters at 10-3.

Captain Michael Clarke, who dropped one place down the order to number five, walked out to face only the ninth delivery of the match.

Brilliant catch

England, who won the toss, struck again when Shaun Marsh edged Broad to Ian Bell at second slip and Adam Voges was brilliantly caught one-handed by Ben Stokes at gully as Australia slumped to 21 for five.

Clarke survived 25 minutes for his 10 runs before he drove loosely at a wide ball from Broad and was well caught above his head by Cook to give Broad his 14th five-wicket haul in tests.

Steven Finn bowled Peter Nevill for two before the 29-year-old Broad struck again, producing another perfect delivery which Mitchell Starc diverted into the safe hands of Root for one and Mitchell Johnson fell in identical fashion for 13.

Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood added 13 runs for the last wicket before the former edged Broad to Stokes to give the fast bowler test-best figures of 8-15.

Adam Lyth’s poor run continued when, on 14, the England batsman edged Starc to wicketkeeper Nevill and left-armer Starc produced a venomous full delivery to trap Bell lbw for one.

Root unfurled a couple of sumptuous cover drives as England eased past Australia’s total and he and Cook looked in complete control in a partnership of 62 until the captain, on 43, misjudged another swinging ball from Starc and was adjudged lbw.

England took tea on 99 for three and Root and Bairstow turned the screw on Australia in the final session as the crowd basked in sunshine.

Bairstow glanced Starc to the boundary to reach his fifty and Root cut part-time medium-pacer Warner for his 17th four to get to his eighth test century, punching the air and raising his bat to all corners of the ground.

Bairstow was closing in on his maiden test hundred when he clipped Hazlewood tamely to Rogers at square leg, ending a superb fourth-wicket stand of 173 from 206 balls.

Root and nightwatchman Wood (two not out) took England safely through to the close and the hosts will look to extend their lead on Friday after a near-perfect opening day.

Warne, Ponting shocked by Australian collapse

Australian great Shane Warne and former captain Ricky Ponting lamented technical failings and mental approach as their countrymen were shot out for a humiliating 60 by England on the first morning of the fourth Ashes test on Thursday.

Warne believes some of the problems stem from the increased amount of limited-overs cricket being played.

“When was the last time there was a real five-day test match that went down to the wire when the batters hung in there and tried to tough it out?” he said on Sky Sports.”It all seems to be happening in fast forward too many times. It happened to England at Lord’s as well, bowled out in 30 overs.”

Warne, who took 708 test wickets and scored more than 3,000 runs, gave credit to England for their bowling and catching in “a perfect session” before lunch at Trent Bridge.

“They exposed a couple of bad techniques,” he said.

“Test cricket is all about technique, the basics. And all about fighting. Credit to Broad, he forced a lot of those errors but I still think Australia could have been a little bit more defensive and (shown) better technique.

“Technique is a teal issue on these sort of pitches. Play it as late as possible or leave it. It’s about getting an ugly score, hanging in there, not giving your wicket away.

“As a batsman you’ve got to have a real plan. It looked like they were a bit shocked. There was no real plan and they should have learnt from the last test match.”

Ponting questioned why the Australians had talked before the series about how positive they were going to be.

“Why say it?” he said. “You can be positive in defence, show intent by leaving the ball or playing a forward or backward defence.

“It doesn’t have to be standing up and trying to whack it through the covers. That’s not going to work in these conditions.

“I don’t know if they’re confused about the way they want to play. They shouldn’t be. When conditions are like this you just have to find a way to get through.

“I just don’t think they’re defensive-minded enough.” Mitchell Johnson probably left the ball better than the top-order players. He was prepared to guts it out. But at that stage they were seven down.”