CricViz: England captain Joe Root is under early pressure after opting to bat in heavy Brisbane conditions

But as the country wakes up to another, now familiar collapse, the focus should fall not on the individual shots and innings seen, but why England were batting in the first place. After much discussion pre-Test about whether England should bat or bowl if given the opportunity, general consensus had – for reasons we’ll come to – arrived at the idea that England should send Australia in. Ex-captains and ex-players offered their assurance that it wasn’t a reckless strategy, and would give England a fighting chance of taking something from the Brisbane fortress.

So why did Joe Root go the other way?

Well, his personal experience of winning the toss and bowling first is not good. Since he took over from Alastair Cook in 2017, England have opted to bowl in eight Tests, and have won just two: v India at Lord’s in 2018, and v Australia at Headingley 2019. Indeed, the last three times Root has inserted the opposition (including twice this summer), England have lost. Those scars don’t heal easily.

To further add to Root’s case, there is a historical logic to batting first on this ground. Like most venues in Australia, Day 1 at the Gabba is quite comfortably the best time to bat, and the remaining four days are – on average, over a long period of time – much of a muchness. In this light, it makes sense to make use of the conditions available, and back your batsmen to make a score.

And yet, this isn’t a Test being played in the abstract. The conditions in Brisbane today were muggy and conducive to swing, while the pitch itself was green and amenable to early seam – the incentive to bowl, and the warning of what could happen should you bat, was plain to see. Australia found 1.6° of lateral movement in the opening 10 overs; against India last summer, they surpassed that only once, in the opening Test at Adelaide and, crucially, with the pink ball. With help in the pitch and rain on the way, the red Kookaburra was far more receptive than usual, and without wishing to remove the agency of Australia’s quicks or ignore their skill, it was hard to watch without reflecting on what could have been for an English attack who crave such movement.

It wasn’t just sideways movement that added to the bowling friendly climate, but something far more familiar to the Queensland crowd. The stereotype of the Gabba is the fast and nasty graveyard where opposition fingers go to die, where the bounce is excessive and the ball comes on quickly. This Gabba pitch didn’t veer too far from that stereotype – the average ball which would have hit the stumps in the opening session was 4.1m from the stumps, more than 2m full of a classical good length. Almost everything was soaring over the top and into the upturned gloves of Alex Carey, healthy carry amplifying the effectiveness of the sideways movement. It was a bowling morning.

It should be stated, explicitly, that Starc, Cummins, and particularly Hazlewood, were outstanding. The accuracy they displayed in the opening exchanges was unrelenting; in terms of consistently finding the channel outside off stump, you have to go back four years for an innings where Australia started more accurately in a home Test. Any movement which was there was boosted by the unerring quality of an attack who rarely fail when faced with this England team.

There is of course another, broader consideration which England appeared to ignore when making their decision today. The weather is likely to be, in every sense, a cloud over proceedings this week at the Gabba – losing more overs feels all but inevitable, and that changes the complexion of the game considerably. In any Test match where time is a serious factor, be it rain affected matches or simply very high scoring ones, there is a significant advantage to bowling first when it comes to forcing the win. In a battle to find the most efficient route to victory, you are in the box seat, far less likely to waste time batting too long in an effort to ensure the game is safe. If you’re looking for a confident, attacking call when you’re batting the clock as well as the opposition, you bowl.

Root and Silverwood could, in response to this, candidly admit that they weren’t looking for a confident, assertive option, but a more defensive one; get out of the Gabbatoir alive, head to Adelaide and the joys of the pink ball, and see where you’re at. The issue is, that still doesn’t stack up, because of the atypical Brisbane climate. When you get into the specifics of the conditions, the opening hour was a demonstration of what the conditions could offer bowlers, if you embraced them – but of how batting first was the easiest possible route to defeat.

Root could argue back that after lunch, the movement disappeared. The degree of swing (0.7° before the break) fell by almost half, and while the seam deviation stayed relatively stable, it had been the combination of movement through the air and off the seam which had caused the problems. For an hour, Pope and Buttler made merry, the latter hitting gaps and lofting over aggressively set infields. This was the passage of play where Root could reasonably point and say that, had his top order – him included – done a competent job of negotiating the new ball, then there were plenty of runs out there. It was the clearest vindication for his decision at the toss.

Yet what should concern England fans is that in the face of broader truths about time-sensitive Tests, and immediate challenges regarding the weather – both of which should have pushed them to bowl first – it’s hard to escape the idea that at least in part, England batted because of what happened on this ground, 20 years ago.

The problem with choosing to bowl first is, essentially, that it’s rare. People will generally remember when you send the opposition in, be it for good reasons or bad. Elect to bat first, get rolled, and the skipper will rarely get criticism beyond passing gallows humour. Elect to bowl and concede a large total – Nasser Hussain in 2002 being the obvious example – and you enter the museum of great mistakes, of unforgivable errors of judgment.

Cast your minds back to 2005. Not to the array of iconic images from the Ashes series that defined a generation, but to the ODI tri-series, between England, Australia, and Bangladesh, which preceded it, and to one of the sillier moments in a serious summer. The sight of Darren Gough, prancing around in the face of Shane Watson, mimicking the ghoul who supposedly haunted the all-rounder’s hotel room at Lumley Castle, has entered the pantheon of English cricket’s montage-ready sledges.

Today would have been a fine time for an Australian reprisal of the role. The spectre of Hussain in 2002, looming over the Gabba sending chills down English spines, was impossible to ignore given the context. It would have been entirely appropriate had Josh Hazlewood, on Joe Root’s arrival to the crease, gone full Casper, bedsheet and all. England looked at a rain affected match and a surface which promised plenty of movement, won the toss, and opted to bat. Because, well … you know why.

England may still get out of this Test with the series at 0-0, and perhaps they’ll even claim an unlikely comeback victory, but if they don’t, then Root’s decision will fall under even greater scrutiny. Let’s hope it doesn’t come back to haunt them.