Left field

Whatever momentum England had built up over Australia by scraping a draw in Cardiff and then winning convincingly at Lord’s, slowly ebbed away following an insipid display late on a truncated first day’s play of the third Ashes Test in Edgbaston, as Australia rattled along at almost four and a half runs an over to close the day at 126-1.

Ricky Ponting, beset by problems, will have been delighted with his sides response in the face of adversity.

A couple of brave decisions from the Australian captain saw embattled fast bowler Mitchell Johnson keep his place in the side, while Shane Watson replaced the enigmatic young opener Phillip Hughes.

Hughes may be feeling a bit of a Twit. His management company used his Twitter feed to announce he had been dropped from the team, a full 3 hours before the start of scheduled play at 11am. The move seemed even more ridiculous once play was delayed because of rain until 5pm.

Ponting then lost one of his most reliable players just before the start of play, with wicketkeeper Brad Hadden breaking a finger in the warm up, meaning a debut for Graham Manou.

It appears a good toss to win on what looks a flat pitch that will deteriorate over the next four days and, unlike in 2005, Ponting followed the rules of Edgbaston and opted to bat first. His openers didn’t disappoint him.

Shane Watson, opening for Australia for the first time in his ninth test match, and Simon Katich cruised at one-day batting pace as they were fed a series of long hops outside off stump and rank deliveries down the leg side, which they tucked into with relish.

So erratic was the England bowling that Mitchell Johnson began to look positively metronomic.

With Shane Watson only having to play at 19 of his first 40 deliveries, eventually Andrew Strauss lost faith with his pace bowlers and brought on Graeme Swann, who rewarded his captain by taking the only wicket to fall in the day, that of Simon Katich, lbw for 46.

Ponting came to crease to join Watson and both batsmen saw out the final ten overs without alarm, with the latter justifying his call up by finishing unbeaten on 62.

England’s bowlers will need to reassess their approach and attitude after an extremely disappointing and flat start to the third test.