Phil Salt defended England's use of "world-class all-rounder" Sam Curran, after his side were crushed by Australia in last night's opening T20 in Southampton.

Australia made a flying start to their innings, scoring 86 runs in the opening powerplay, and while England fought back well to restrict the tourists to 179, they were bowled out for 151, with four balls to spare, in the chase.

"They ended on a score which we felt was very chaseable here," said Salt, who is deputising for injured skipper Jos Buttler during the three-match series. "But we kept losing wickets at bad times. We were lacking partnerships with real depths to get us over the line."

England's use of Curran as a bowling all-rounder at No6 looked a particularly poor move, given the 25-year-old's outstanding form with the bat higher up the order in domestic cricket this term.

Curran averaged 40 batting between No3 and No5 during the Oval Invincibles's Hundred success last month and was named that tournament's MVP. He also made his first T20 hundred for Surrey earlier this season and last week scored a half-century in a pressure chase to help the county into this weekend's Vitality Blast Finals Day.

England experimented with Curran at No4 for one game during last winter's tour of the West Indies and he responded with his maiden T20I half-century, but he has not batted higher than No6 since. Last night, he made 18 from 15 deliveries, having already conceded one for 35 in two overs with the ball.

"You're not happy with how things play out when you don't get over the line," Salt added. "I feel like Sam's got all the tools to be a world-class all-rounder — and he is one currently. There's all sorts of

avenues you can go down when you don't get over the line, but we're very happy with the team we've got."

The series continues tomorrow at Cardiff, where Salt admits England will have to find an answer to the destructive form of opener Travis Head, who made 59 from 23 balls in Southampton, including hitting 30 off a single Curran over.

"He's had a great two years," Salt said. "It's a job to shut someone down who's going that well. He's not very conventional, which makes him hard to bowl at."