Five quick hits — An unusual decision at the toss and another crucial drop on day one at Adelaide Oval

Australia made an unusual choice after winning the toss and bowling first, but were vindicated by bowling West Indies out for 188.

The West Indies then gave one Australian opener a life, while a debutant dismissed the far more heralded of the pair with his first ball in Test cricket. 

Here’s the five quick hits from day one at Adelaide Oval.

1. Win the toss and bowl?

Win the toss and bowl first?

Not at Adelaide Oval you don’t.

When Pat Cummins opted to have a bowl after winning the toss — albeit under grey skies on a greenish pitch against an inexperienced batting lineup — it could have raised some eyebrows.

In the 82 Tests played at Adelaide Oval, just nine teams have won the toss and bowled first.

The only team to have won a Test having won the toss and bowled first was the West Indies in 1982.

It’s even rare for Cummins to make that choice, despite the obvious strength in the bowling.

Cummins has won the toss 14 times in the 25 times he has captained Australia in Tests, but has only chosen to bowl first five times.

Australia won the first three of those matches, against England at the MCG in 2021 and then against South Africa in Brisbane and Melbourne last summer.

But he lost the last one, at The Oval against England in the Ashes.

2. Green giant makes magic return

The promotion of Steve Smith to open was expressly to make room for Cameron Green in the side — because he is one of Australia’s top six batters according to coach Andrew McDonald.

But another aspect of the giant West Australian’s game is his fielding and it was with this that he made his mark inside the first hour.

After a dogged start in which the West Indies scored just 14 runs in 57 balls, including a spell of 34 balls without a run being scored, the West Indies might have thought they needed to release the pressure valve.

Tagenarine Chanderpaul drove expansively at a wider Pat Cummins delivery and sent a thick edge flying at speed towards gully.

There, Green reached up the full extent of his 198cm-tall frame and took a brilliant catch above his head — his 26th grab in his 25th Test.

3. Josh Hazlewood’s 250th

If it’s not Captain Pat, Australia has so many other weapons with which to hurt teams, including Josh Hazlewood.

His wicket of Alick Athanaze was his 250th in Test matches.

The 33-year-old has got his poles at an average just shy of 26 with an economy of 2.8 runs per over.

Now into his 10th year in Australia’s Test team, Hazlewood has the 11th most wickets of any Australian bowler and is closing in on Jason Gillespie.

He ended with impressive figures of 4-44 from his 15 overs, with six maidens.

4. The WIndies wagging tail

With 48.2 overs bowled, the West Indies, at 9-133, were facing humiliation.

The collapse of 6-35 meant that, with tea just around the corner, Steve Smith was able to start thinking about his maiden innings at an opener.

So when tea was taken, half an hour later than scheduled, Smith may have been asking himself, perplexed as to why he was not strapping his pads on.

Although, given Australia’s bizarre tendency to completely lose the plot when bowling to the tail over the last couple of Tests, perhaps he should have expected it.

Just as when Pakistan’s Aamir Jamal and Mir Hamaza added 86 for the final wicket in the first innings at Sydney, with Australia sending back the field and bowling bouncers, the same thing happened in Adelaide.

Kemar Roach and Shamar Joseph added 55 before Joseph was trapped LBW by Nathan Lyon for 36 — his highest first class score.

5. Why can’t anyone catch?

We saw throughout the Pakistan series that dropped catches can be incredibly costly.

Arguably, the drops at the SCG cost Pakistan a rare Test victory on Australian soil.

The last thing that West Indies would have wanted was to follow suit, especially after being bowled out for just 188 on day one.

So fans and players alike looked on in horror as Alzarri Joseph found the edge of Usman Khawaja, only for Joshua da Silva to drop it cold behind the stumps.

The West Indian keeper went one handed, dived too far and copped the ball on the wrist instead of in the pouch.

Khawaja was on 1 and Australia 0-4 at the time, with the opener making it to the close on 30.