In a helter-skelter start to the series at Edgbaston, Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon both took two wickets in the opening two sessions on Friday as England rattled along at 4.61 an over.
Joe Root has held England’s innings together, reverse-sweeping and driving his way to 66 as batsmen went in and out around him amid a strokemaking fest.
But that is the style of England in the Bazball era.
Picked ahead of the omitted Mitchell Starc after injuries limited him to four Tests in two years, Hazlewood claimed Australia’s first wicket of the series when he took Ben Duckett’s edge.
Duckett has become known for leaving only six balls in the past 12 months, something Australia no doubt believe they can capitalise on in this series.
The English opener inside-edged one ball off Hazlewood for four, but was out next delivery when he nicked a wide one outside off stump on 12.
Hazlewood (2-44) also claimed the key wicket of Stokes in the middle session when he had the England captain edging a drive outside off stump on one.
At that point England were 5-176 after winning the toss and batting, before Root and Jonny Bairstow (33) put on a 64-run unbeaten stand to stabilise for the hosts.
In Australia’s first real introduction to England’s fearless approach under coach Brendon McCullum, Zak Crawley crunched the first ball of the series off Pat Cummins for four through cover.
The opener also sent Hazlewood’s first ball to the square-leg boundary, before he brought up his half-century off 56 balls while driving and cutting beautifully.
Australia responded by putting three men on the boundary from the third over of the day, a ploy they have maintained all day.
Crawley looked in but fell for 61 on what would be the last ball before lunch, when a rising Scott Boland ball flicked his thumb on the way to wicketkeeper Alex Carey.
Ollie Pope also looked in nice touch before he was lbw on 31, going back to a Lyon (2-71) ball that ball-tracking showed would have crashed into leg stump.
Then it was Harry Brook’s turn to be the aggressor.
The right-hander jumped down the wicket at Boland and hit him for four, late-cut him to the boundary another time and was dropped by Travis Head at deep backward-point trying to uppercut the Victorian.
Fortunate once, Brook was brutally unlucky on 32 when a Lyon ball ballooned off his thigh pad and into the air, quite unsighting the batter before it spun back and rolled apologetically onto the stumps.