What was meant to be a walk in the park is turning out to be a nightmare for England in their tour opener against a second-string WACA Chairman’s XI.

At tea on day one, the WA side were 1-221, with Luke Towers on 73 and Chris Lynn on 76.

Opener Marcus Harris made 69 earlier in the day before edging James Anderson through to gully.

Anderson and Stuart Broad are guaranteed starters for the first Test against Australia at the Gabba, starting November 21.

But the final spot in England’s pace battery remains up in the air.

The tour opener was slated as a bowl-off between Chris Tremlett, Boyd Rankin and Steven Finn, but all three failed to fire in the first two sessions.

Rankin conceded 25 runs from his first three overs after bowling a series of horrible full tosses.

The 29-year-old bowled a bit better after lunch, but still went to tea with figures of 0-53 from 11 overs.

England rested skipper Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen, Graeme Swann and Broad for the match.

Even so, they would have been expecting a far brighter start against a WA line-up that was missing most of its best players due to Sheffield Shield duties.

Harris, who came into the match with an average of 28.6 from his 20 prior first-class appearances, took England to task early.

The 21-year-old cracked nine fours on the way to a 53-ball half-century, before falling to the disciplined Anderson shortly after lunch.

Lynn, who was drafted in from Queensland to bolster the WA side, took up where Harris left off, cracking 11 fours and a six to further frustrate England’s pop gun attack.