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The Australian men's hockey team have made a winning start to their four-match series against Malaysia after posting a 3-0 win in Perth.

The Kookaburras have made a successful return to international hockey with a 3-0 win over Malaysia in Perth.

First-half goals from Tom Wickham, Blake Govers and Jeremy Hayward were enough for the Kookaburras to see off the world No.11 Malaysians in the first of the four-match series.

James Collins, Craig Marais and Ky Willott all made their debuts, with coach Colin Batch confirming goalkeeper Ben Rennie would make his debut in game two on Sunday.

Saturday's match was the Kookaburras' first appearance since winning silver at the Tokyo Olympics last August.

The series was originally set to be five matches and start on Thursday, but Malaysia's arrival to Perth was delayed until Thursday night.

The matches will be the only international hit-outs for the Kookaburras in Australia before the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in July.

"We are delighted to play again," Batch said after the win.

"The boys have obviously been really keen to play and Malaysia were good enough to come here so we really enjoyed the contest.

"Tom (Wickham) gave us the dream start but as you would expect we were a bit rusty and Malaysia made it difficult to break them down.

"We've had some really good inter-squad games but there's nothing like an international and that's what we saw today.

"To have Craig, Ky and James debut was fantastic and they will be better for the run.

"They are still really young and would have had some nerves and expectations of performing well, but it was good to have them involved in a win first up."

It had been 258 days since the Kookaburras last featured on the international stage, but it took just 50 seconds for them to find the back of the net from the opening pushback.

Tenacious pressure from Jake Whetton caused the turnover and on the counter attack he linked up a one-two with Govers before hammering a reverse stick across the goal face and Wickham was positioned to dive and turn the ball in.

In the 19th minute it was 2-0 when Govers scored with a trademark drag flick from a penalty corner, continuing his phenomenal strike rate with his 97th goal in his 112th appearance.

Govers' drag flick partner in crime Hayward then got in on the act in the shadows of halftime with another well-executed finish to make it a three-goal advantage.