England pace trio struggle against WA XI Wayward: England's Irish import Boyd Rankin during the tour cricket match against Western Australia Chairman's XI in Perth. This was supposed to be the battle between England's tall timber but instead a temporary Queensland import who would have been hoping to be elsewhere wrecked the visitors' first day in the office. England meant business from the word go when they landed in Australia three years ago but the class of 2013 are taking a more leisurely start to this mission, judging by their inauspicious start to the tour on Thursday. The three-way bowl-off between prospective Test quicks Steven Finn, Chris Tremlett and Boyd Rankin for the final place in England's pace attack turned into a fizzer. Led by a century from Chris Lynn, who was drafted after being overlooked by Queensland selectors for the Shield, what was effectively a WA second XI piled on 4-369 - a scoreline Darren Lehmann would gladly accept at the Gabba for his Test batsmen. Mitchell Marsh made a breezy 58 coming back from injury, and was one of four players to pass 50 on a wicket not overly helpful to the bowlers. While Australia have no shortage of batsmen putting their hand up to fill the vacant slot in the Test top six, those in line for the final berth in England's pace attack made a bumbling start to their Ashes auditions. Nothing Tremlett, Finn and Rankin produced will have Michael Clarke's side overly worried for now. The trio produced combined figures of 1-245 from 53 overs, and did not have a wicket between them until an hour into the final session when Rankin had Lynn caught cutting for 104. Nor were they much threat when the ball was new, struggling to beat the bat against the unheralded opening combination of Marcus Harris and Luke Towers. The match was only several overs old when Rankin, whom England secured from Ireland, completely lost his radar. In one morale-sapping over, when he gave up 16 runs, he followed a waist-high full toss with another that did not touch the pitch. The England slips cordon were worried enough for his flagging confidence to clap a rare dot ball. There was a marked improvement in his second spell but it was not a memorable start. Tremlett, who terrorised Australia the last time he was here, was steady but unremarkable although his reprieve of Lynn, on 66, at mid-on would not have helped his cause. Finn generated a huge lbw shout on the stroke of lunch though also failed to mount much pressure against the batsmen. James Anderson was clearly the pick of the England quicks, taking the only wicket to fall in the opening two sessions. He lured Harris into a rash cut to Ian Bell at gully, ending a useful knock of 69. ""If you're bowling badly a few days before the Test match that's when you'll be panicking a little bit but I think we can all take good things out of today,"" Tremlett said. ""We had good spells at times but overall picture we were off the radar as a whole.""