Should you bowl first at the Gabba?

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November 7, 2002. It was one of the slowest news days you will find. Yet if you say it to an England fan, their bodies flinch uncontrollably.

The day looms over Nasser Hussain like a tornado he can’t outrun. Why? Because he made a decision that has haunted him ever since.

It all starts on a morning at the Gabba. The sun was hot, but the pitch was green. There was talk that this was the kind of wicket that nips around everywhere. But, there are complications. Darren Gough, his most experienced bowler, has an injured knee. Freddie Flintoff remains stuck in rehab. But Nasser heard that Steve Waugh was planning to bowl first, Marcus Trescothick also said he’d bowl first. Nasser heard enough. He wins the toss, and decides to lose—sorry, I meant bowl.

England has been consistently a bat first team, even on helpful home wickets. Bowling first was not part of English culture. But Nasser wanted to take it to the Aussies. He had Welsh quick Simon Jones, and two solid guys in Andy Caddick and Matthew Hoggard. This was his moment to show his team was going to attack from ball one of the Ashes.

Nasser was right, the ball did swing. He thought, “Maybe this is going to work out”. Justin Langer, Australia’s opener, thought the same. But England wasted the early advantage, and Australia attacked. England’s seamers overpitched, were too wide, and looked like throwdown specialists.

Australia brought up their 50 run opening partnership in only 74 balls. They were flying. But Nasser brought on Simon Jones, who might have been wayward himself, but he was quick, and he took Langer’s wicket. Maybe that would slow Australia down.

Instead, Ricky Ponting came hard at the bowling as well. He and Matthew Hayden put on another 50-run partnership, this time in 60 balls. At lunch, the score was 126/1. But that wasn’t even the worst part: Simon Jones’ knee got caught in the outfield, and he was carried off in agony. The ball had stopped swinging, the bowling line-up was not complete, and Australia were rolling.

But the pitch was green.

The Hitwicket ad was written months ago. I used the Nasser story because it’s one of the most famous decisions at the toss in cricket. First days of Ashes tend to get overhyped, and any time a captain bowls first and the attack can’t do the job, it goes poorly. Australia batting at the speed they did, and Jones’ injury didn’t help. It really felt like England had already lost the Ashes at stumps on day one, with Australia on a barely believable 364 for two.

England have not won the toss and bowled at the Gabba since. But they had done it before. Nasser did not invent something new. For Shield and Test cricket, teams have often turned up in Brisbane, seen grass on the wicket, and decided to bowl first. What Rohit Sharma did today has an extraordinarily long history. Teams go up north, see grass and bowl. And usually, Australia wins.

What is strange about all this is that the Aussies don’t do this much. They see the same greenness, feel the same humidity, and they think batting first is the way to go. It’s not completely unique for this to happen. Opposition teams often make calls that home sides wouldn’t. For instance, New Zealand batting first on seaming home wickets that other teams would automatically bowl on is really common.

But because of Nasser, bowling first at the Gabba is pretty famous. Yet, teams do it there, almost one in three times.

So what is it about the Gabba that screams bowl first?

Australia have done well bowling first, but it was the Gabbatoir for ages, so they also did well when batting first. Opposition teams are at a disadvantage either way, so maybe that is what happens.

There have only been two touring sides to win at the Gabba in the last 20 years. One decided to bat first, and the other lost the toss and bowled. Of course, the West Indies win came in a day-night Test, so the normal rules don’t quite apply.

The other win was from India chasing more than three hundred, seven wickets down. That was a hard thing to do, and certainly not something that can be easily replicated. But Australia was in some trouble in the first session of that match, even if they recovered to score 369. So in the end, it is hard to say that India bowling first made a huge impact.

However, when you go through the recent games, there have been some early wickets at the Gabba. Of course, there has been early seam movement everywhere in Australia. But the last few Tests—even the one the West Indies won—had plenty of early victims.

Plus, Rohit Sharma would have seen that the surface was softer than normal. Again, suggesting there might be even more seam movement.

And you can take it a step further. If you look at the last eight years, the Gabba has been the best place to bowl with the new ball on day one of an Australian Test. It’s got a healthy lead as well of any of the grounds with more than two Tests. Adelaide Oval’s often pink ball is the only one in contention. The ball does do a lot at the start of Gabba Tests.

But, day two has been better to bowl on. The kind of wicket that Nasser Hussain made his fateful error on no longer really exists. This is no longer a good surface for batting and bowling. The seamers have been dominating here for quite a while now.

There were always a few years when the quicks did well. But overall, the batters have made runs at this ground. At its best, it was one of the most fun pitches in cricket because you could use your spinners and the batters made runs, but the seamers were always in it. Then, there was a period when it got flat. Ask Alastair Cook.

Now, no one is making runs against the quicks on this pitch. It doesn’t matter what innings, what day, early, or late—the Gabba has become a low-scoring ground.

There are two ways to look at that tactically. Do you want to dismiss the opposition cheaply and then hope to get past them by enough to be in charge of the game, or battle through, put a score on the board, and then use that pressure to skittle the opposition?

There are no correct answers. It depends on your team and the conditions. It's a low-scoring series, where the first innings has been tricky. It would have made sense to Rohit Sharma to bowl first at the Gabba.

But we live in a bat first game. Millions of us around the world have been schooled on looking at your team, the wicket, and then thinking about bowling first before choosing to bat anyway. Countless old aunties, grandfathers and stories of former cricketers have told us this. This made sense in the days of uncovered wickets, as the pitches would get a lot worse through a match. Then, in the '80s, when the covers came in, things got a lot more level.

Bowling first isn’t the taboo it used to be. And with batters—especially the top three—struggling so much, it makes sense to throw them under the bus. Australia has a quality opener out of touch, a makeshift one as his partner and Marnus Labuschagne still trying to get back to his best. The wicket had grass, has been doing a bit early on recently, was soft, and it probably felt like a good idea.

But it’s a safe option to bat first. In cricket, we see it as the morally right thing to do. Bowling first is seen as cowardly from the often batting captains. Very few times do you seem to come under the same scrutiny as when you bowl first and it goes wrong. Maybe it is simply the time. If you win the toss, bat first, and get rolled, the game has always moved on. Win the toss, bowl first, and it goes wrong, people have nothing else to talk about for the next four sessions.

However, like most of leadership in cricket, it comes down to your bowlers. If Caddick and Hoggard had taken early wickets with that swing, and Australia had crumbled, no one would remember Nasser’s decision at the toss.

Rohit Sharma did not make a hideous decision at the toss. His bowlers struggled to find the right lines and lengths in their first spell, and seemed to be getting into theirs for the second, before the rain stopped them.

So, should you bowl first at the Gabba? The answer, as always, is it depends. But what you should never do is win the toss, field first and bowl poorly.