The Australian lessons Nasser ignored

View from Oz

Before there's a push to bring back the noose for a cricket captain found guilty of carelessness at the toss, it should be pointed out Nasser Hussain is not the lone ranger. Cricket people raised in another era, when common sense abounded, find it hard to understand modern flannelled fools who, having had the good luck to win the toss in perfect batting conditions, decide to field.

Simon Katich, Darren Lehmann and Shane Lee, Australian names with whom English fans will identify, rub shoulders with Hussain. In different domestic cricket matches played on the eve of the Gabba Test, state captains Katich and Lehmann inserted, watched their bowlers go for a thousand runs all up, and lost the games.

Then there is Lee. Last summer, New South Wales continued a tradition of promoting the game in country areas and scheduled a domestic limited-overs match for Coffs Harbour, a coastal resort more famous for bananas and bikinis. At the toss there was not a cloud in a bright blue sky, the pitch had been prepared according to recipe – dry, flat and brown – and the outfield was freshly mown.

Lee, coach Steve Rixon and adviser Geoff Lawson by his side, won the toss – and fielded. A dozen overs into the game and conditions were the same, except a nor'westerly wind, its origins somewhere in the Simpson desert, had swept in and pushed the temperature to 44C, the highest ever recorded in Coffs in January. Shortly, Lee and his men were cooked gooses.

Modern thinking (Lee and company) is that if there is any life in a pitch it will be early on day one, so the fast men must be offered that edge, even if minuscule. Old-fashioned thinking was never so blinkered. Captains balanced early pitch life against the value of runs on the board, the psychological statement batting first made, and the advantage of bowling on a wearing pitch late in the match. Which begs the question, what exactly is "pitch life"?

Modernists will cheer Hussain's explanation about the Gabba's green tinge offering his young fast bowlers their best hope of success, pointing out pitch deterioration wasn't going to be so great as to make Ashley Giles a match-winner.

Old-timers say that when Hussain won the toss he was thinking of the psychological consequences: "What's toughest, having our brains belted in by McGrath and Gillespie on day one or having them befuddled by Warne on days three to five?"

England's first response to Hussain's challenge was nervy and patchy. But there have been good signs since. Some sharp bowling, the tactical gem that scuttled Steve Waugh, the aggressive batting from the top five, are signs of character that will reinvigorate interest among cynical Australian fans. So will a decision by the national television broadcaster to screen this week a documentary devoted to the 70th anniversary of Bodyline.

Pre-publicity footage refreshes the memory about "one team playing cricket, the other not", also the gladiatorial contest of 1975 –"if Lillee doesn't get you, then Thommo must". Ian Chappell is seen reminiscing about a favourite moment: "We spent the first Test trying to knock Tony Greig's block off." A nice touch that, because they now share the commentary box and that edge remains.

England's sad first day wasn't even half over, Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting in full flight and Simon Jones off facing serious knee surgery, when Chappell was stirring: "Greigy, last night you were rock solid for England – jumped off the bus yet?" The Bodyline hype was lost on the Australian selectors. They displayed cold-blooded logic and omitted the fast bowler most likely to knock off heads, Brett Lee, who for all his 24-Test career has brought to Australia's opponents what Steve Waugh calls The Fear Factor. Lazy selectors subscribe to the theory that is fool's gold – never change a winning team. Sharp selectors think that even a winning team might be improved.

On the face of it, Andy Bichel for Lee looked like a straight swap of fast bowlers. It wasn't. The selectors subtly altered the balance of the attack. Lee's Test strike rate, a wicket every 48 balls, was compelling evidence for retention, but his recent waywardness was releasing the pressure on batsmen, which in turn meant an increased workload on those indispensable strikers, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. Who knows, the increased workload might have weakened Jason Gillespie, strike rate 52, leading to his breakdown against Pakistan last series. In McGrath, Gillespie and Lee Australia were playing three pure strike bowlers, heady stuff. Bichel is a workhorse, the type who can bowl long stints, tie up an end, maintain pressure and allow rotation of the true strikers at the other end.

Mind you, Bichel's strike rate is 56. The great Ray Lindwall's was 59. That's not to say Bichel is more dangerous than Lindwall, or Lee, just that he is above average. Which might be another reason Hussain chose not to bat.