Ashes: England beaten by Australia in first Test in Brisbane

England's hope evaporated into a crushing nine-wicket defeat by Australia on the fourth day of the first Ashes Test at the Gabba.

Malan was Nathan Lyon's 400th Test wicket, the off-spinner going on to claim 4-91 as England were bowled out for 297.

Australia were left with only 20 to chase, which they completed soon after lunch in the Brisbane sun to give Pat Cummins victory in his first Test as captain.

The home side go 1-0 up in the five-match series and continue their 35-year unbeaten run against England in Brisbane.

England have now lost 10 of their past 11 Tests in Australia and won only one of 10 matches since they beat India in the first Test in February.

With England needing to win the series in order to regain the Ashes, Root's side have almost no margin for error in the remaining four Tests.

The second Test in Adelaide, a day-night match played with a pink ball, begins on Thursday.

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that the fifth Test, originally scheduled for Perth, will instead be held in Hobart, also as a day-nighter.

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England engineer their downfall

Given their wretched record at the Gabba and disrupted preparation, England needed everything to go right for them if they were to leave Brisbane with a result.

Instead, they were as good as beaten when they were bowled out for 147 by tea on day one. On top of that, David Warner was dropped and bowled off a no-ball as he made a crucial 94 in Australia's first innings.

The only time England had the better of Australia was when Root and Malan were compiling their 162-run partnership on the third evening.

Questions will be asked of the decisions England made. They chose to bat in ideal conditions for bowling and left out pace bowler Stuart Broad in favour of spinner Jack Leach, who was crashed for 102 runs in his 13 overs.

In fairness, the way the pitch behaved suggests Australia would have faced some uneven bounce and turn from Leach if England had been able to post a challenging target in the fourth innings.

Ultimately, toss and selection decisions count for little when the batting collapses in both innings and chances are not taken in the field.

Now there is huge pressure on England in Adelaide, when Broad and James Anderson will surely return in a bid to exploit the pink ball. Lose there and the Ashes will almost certainly be gone.

Hope extinguished

The optimism Root and Malan created on Friday lasted less than four overs into Saturday, when the advancing Malan turned the ball into his pad to be caught at silly point, making Lyon the 17th man in Test history to reach 400 wickets.

The hammer blow for England was the loss of prolific captain Root, who was drawn into edging a delicious outswinger from Cameron Green, ensuring his wait for a Test hundred in Australia continues.

From there, England subsided to the ruthless Australians in a collection of loose strokes, poor technique and timid prods.

When Ollie Pope inexplicably tried to cut his first ball from Lyon and was caught at slip, England had lost 3-11, after which came a bizarre period of about 30 minutes when global TV pictures from the Gabba were lost.

England did not lose a wicket in that time but, when they returned, Ben Stokes was squared up for the second time in the match and was caught off a leading edge from Cummins' bowling.

Jos Buttler nicked Josh Hazlewood, both Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood fell trying to attack Lyon and Chris Woakes gave an edge off Green.

All alright for Australia

Three weeks ago Australia's joy at winning the T20 World Cup was shattered by the resignation of captain Tim Paine in a texting scandal, with the former captain going on to pull out of the series altogether.

Now they are 1-0 up and surely contemplating repeating the hammerings dished out on three of England's last four tours down under.

Cummins marked his captaincy bow with seven wickets, Travis Head repaid his selection with 152 and Alex Carey, making his debut behind the stumps as Paine's replacement, took eight catches.

One concern for Australia will be the fitness of Warner, who was struck in the ribs while batting in the first innings and subsequently did not field or bat in the second.

Carey took his place as opener but edged Robinson behind just before Marcus Harris hit the winning runs.