England crashed to a heavy defeat in the first outing of their Australia white-ball tour, with a rousing home debut from 21-year-old Mahli Beardman helping to divert some of the attention from the ongoing sandpaper scandal for the hosts.

Australia are in the midst of a bitter civil war over Usman Khawaja’s ball-tampering allegations but put that to one side as they eased to a seven-wicket victory in Perth, where local boy Beardman registered stunning figures of six for 24 on his ODI debut.

It proved another calamitous visit to Optus Stadium for England, who thew away the first Ashes Test in two days on the same ground 12 months ago.

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Aussie reserve quicks impress in audition

With Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood all rested between Test series, Australia pieced together an inexperienced attack and watched as it dismantled their rivals.

At one stage England were 65 for eight and staring at a record low total, with some late repair work by the tail lifting them to 131 all out with more than 16 overs to spare.

Travis Head missed the chance to repeat his match-winning Ashes knock when he was bowled for a golden duck by Gus Atkinson but skipper Mitch Marsh took up the mantle, clubbing 50 off just 30 balls to lead a chase that was all over inside 24 overs.

England were criticised last winter for being too casual in their preparations Down Under but that has not been the case this time.

They have trained hard, given themselves time to acclimatise and beaten Western Australia in a warm-up game at the WACA.

All of that work came to nothing, though, as they followed up a disappointing tri-series in Pakistan with a fourth loss in their last five outings.

Rising star Beardman blows England away

After being sent in, England’s openers scraped together 24 before Australia bagged their first with Ben Duckett slashing Spencer Johnson to backward point.

Tom Banton came closest to finding form by hitting five fours on his way to 25, before driving with hard hands at the tidy Xavier Bartlett.

Australia’s new-ball pairing were beating the bat consistently in a probing powerplay which yielded just 38 runs for the tourists.

An average start rapidly transformed into a dreadful one as the introduction of debutant Beardman plunged the innings into turmoil.

Kicking off his ODI career with England’s two best batters at the crease, the right-arm quick immediately got the best of both.

His eighth ball was sharp and well directed, with enough swing to take the outside edge as Harry Brook went back in defence.

Joe Root, on the day he became just the third Englishman to reach 200 ODI appearances, was an even bigger scalp.

Muddling his way to 17 from 36 balls, he was put down by Cooper Connolly on three before an optimistic drive off Beardman wound up in Josh Inglis’ gloves.

The celebrations showed how much that wicket meant but he was just warming up.

Jordan Cox was soon sent on his way after another defensive nick and Sam Curran once again succumbed to the short ball as he hooked obligingly to fine leg for a seven-ball duck.

Liam Dawson also fell without score, Beardman’s fifth victim of what was proving to be a dream debut.

Hosts cruise to victory target

England’s struggles continued as Jamie Overton’s ugly top-edge was plucked one-handed by Johnson on his follow-through to leave them eight down, but Will Jacks’ 25 and Atkinson’s punchy 29 not out ensured they at least surpassed their lowest-ever ODI total of 86 against Australia in 2001.

Beardman returned to end the innings, dismissing Jofra Archer to claim record debut figures for Australia and also match England’s best ever analysis in the format – by Reece Topley against India at Lord’s in 2022.

Atkinson bowled Head with his first delivery to briefly raise the possibility of a low-scoring thriller but Australia never threatened to let the result slip.

Stand-in captain Marsh put his foot down, blazing four sixes and four fours, effectively settling the contest by the time he flicked Overton to deep mid-wicket in the ninth over.

Banton misjudged a steepling catch to spare Connolly on five, who added 22 more before poking Archer to gully.

England-born duo Inglis and Matt Renshaw completed the job with minimal fuss, leaving 159 deliveries unused.

The two sides face a quick turnaround as they head to Adelaide for the second ODI on Sunday, where the hosts will look to clinch the series.