David Warner threw his wicket away, but Australia otherwise made a bright start in their quest to level the Ashes series.
Australia were 1-104 at lunch on day one of the second Test, having seen off the new ball with few false strokes and plenty of bold cover drives on Thursday.
Chris Rogers did most of the early attacking at Lord's, where Warner was relatively subdued against Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson.
Warner looked far more comfortable against Mark Wood, hammering five boundaries off the first-change bowler.
The pugnacious opener then attempted to go after Moeen Ali when the offspinner came on to bowl the 15th over.
Warner smacked the offspinner's first two balls to the rope, but his third wild stroke in the over ended with Anderson catching the skied ball.
"Warner threw his wicket away there. Australia were dominating that session, he didn't need to do that," Glenn McGrath said on BBC.
Former captain Ricky Ponting called Warner's dismissal on 38 an "absolute gift".
"Australia were holding the absolute ascendancy at that stage ... you don't get batting conditions like this too often in England," Ponting said on Sky Sports.
Throwing away starts was one of Australia's many batting problems in the first Test, which they lost by 169 runs inside four days.
Warner's dismissal curbed the run-rate, however Rogers and Steve Smith both batted sensibly in their unbeaten 26-run partnership.
Rogers had a nervous moment on zero in the opening over, when an edge flew over the slips cordon and careered to the fence.
The veteran opener, who scored 95 in Cardiff, otherwise continued his strong from to be 43 not out at lunch.
Smith was unbeaten on 16.
Michael Clarke had no hesitation in batting first on a "very good pitch" after winning the toss, while Alastair Cook admitted England were also keen to bat first.
As expected, Australia made two changes to the their side.
Brad Haddin (family reasons) and Shane Watson (dropped) were replaced by debutant Peter Nevill and Mitch Marsh.
Ali was retained by England despite suffering a minor side strain in Cardiff.
A report in The Guardian suggested England management wanted to rest Ali, however uncapped legspinner Adil Rashid declared himself unfit to play due to a finger injury.
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