Twitter Reactions: Australia on top after Joe Root elected to bowl first

While only 81 overs of play was possible on the first day of the second Ashes test because of rain, it was still Test match Cricket of the highest standard as the fans got to see some high class bowling and some gritty batting throughout the day.

The day started with the English skipper Joe Root winning the toss and making a bizarre decision of bowling first on a track which was flat as a road. Yes the conditions were overcast and the pink ball was going to move around a little bit, but batting first would still have been a much positive move considering that England were coming from a heavy loss and needed to make a statement.

Not only did Joe Root make a questionable decision at the toss, his captaincy in the first session of play was pretty questionable too as he didn’t set attacking fields and was pretty happy to sit back and wait for the Aussie batsmen to make a mistake.

The Aussies did make a mistake to gift England the first wicket as the miscommunication between the openers resulted in Cameron Bancroft getting run out. After getting the first breakthrough, Root turned the screws on with some attacking fields and the bowlers complemented him by bowling right channel too as England managed to remove two of Australia’s best batsmen David warner and Steve Smith cheaply.

Once the lights came on, the ball moved vociferously in the last session and England would have ideally wanted a few more wickets before the stumps, but Peter Handscomb and Shaun Marsh showed good resilience to see off the day. The kangaroos were 209 for 4 at stumps.

Here are some of the interesting Twitter reactions during the first day’s play