Cricket: England get smoked as Kemar Roach fires

West Indies' Kemar Roach. Photo / AP

It was back to the glory days of Caribbean cricket as England were blown away for 77, to leave them trailing West Indies by 339 at the end of the second day of the first test.

The West Indian fast bowlers generated the pace required to maximise the unevenness in the Barbados pitch.

Kemar Roach claimed five England victims - the prime wickets of Rory Burns, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali - for only four runs. Roach pounded in from the pavilion end, used the strong cross-wind to shape the ball into the right-handers, and extracted bounce that was, for them, excessive.

But if one ball epitomised the calibre of the West Indian fast bowling, it was the bouncer by Shannon Gabriel - who was timed as the fastest of the four members of the home attack at 148km/h - at Sam Curran. Curran, 20, has done manful feats for England already but this was a reprise of West Indies v England in the 1980s and early 1990s: men against boys. Curran's survival instinct made him duck a snorting bouncer and raise his gloves in self-protection.

If England had not enjoyed a relatively comfortable start, reaching 23 before losing their first wicket, they might have plumbed all-time depths.

England's lowest total of 45 was made in the 19th century, as you would expect, but their second and third-lowest totals occurred at the hands of West Indian fast bowlers in modern times: 46 in Trinidad in 1994 and 51 in Kingston in 2009.

In those two earlier cases, something was rotten in the state of English cricket: in 1994, there were no central contracts and no academy, while in 2009, the cult of certain individuals was bigger than the team.

Moeen did give England a glimmer by taking two wickets in an over, reducing the West Indies to 61 for five.

If England go on to lose this game, the critical passage will be seen as their failure to make the most of the first new ball on day one, which let the West Indies reach 126 for one, before batsmen on both sides started a constant procession.

In the absence of Stuart Broad, and with James Anderson and Curran pitching too short, West Indies were given more than a head's start; and while Anderson has out-swung the ball beautifully, only Stokes has been able to generate the same speed as the West Indian attack and thereby maximise the pitch's unevenness.

• Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne steadied the ship for Australia to take a first-innings lead before tea on the second afternoon of the pink-ball test against Sri Lanka at the Gabba in Brisbane.

After resuming at 78-2 on day two in response to Sri Lanka's 144, Australia lost Marcus Harris and nightwatchman Nathan Lyon early before Labuschagne and Head helped the hosts recover to 159-4.

Harris looked set at stumps on opening night but threw away his chance of a big score when he pushed one straight to point on 44 from the last ball of the opening over.

Harris has now passed 20 in all but one of his eight completed test innings but is yet to convert a start into a century despite being Australia's best against India.

Lyon went the following over when he edged Suranga Lakmal to second slip, leaving Australia 82-4.

Head and Labuschagne grittily assumed control of the innings.

Australia are fielding their most inexperienced batting line-up in more than 40 years, with 66 tests between their top six.