The first day of the first test after England retained the Urn at Old Trafford courtesy of the intervention of rain was always going to be interesting to see how the teams reacted to that result. It was Australia's day to be sure and here are my key talking points arising from the day:

1. England's tactics …the devil and the deep blue sea

England's batters seems to not know whether to attack or defend and were oft caught out and dismissed as a result of their mindset. The ease of Anderson and Bresnan's stand in the shadows of stumps surely will have given the others who came before them a moment of pause. It will be interesting to see what the captain's tactics are in the field because he already has the look of a man playing for a draw.

2. Nathan Lyon: haters are still gonna hate

Nathan Lyon justified his selection here with fantastic display of quality spin bowling. His control was a key factor to his success overnight and he got wickets the way an off spinner ought: LBW, caught at short leg, caught behind and caught at mid off. There will be the usual people who do not rate Lyon (bizarrely mainly from the Australian press corps) who will snipe that Lyon has performed when the pressure is now off but I can believe that any fair minded fan could say that it was not a mistake to have left him out for the first 2 test matches.

3. Jackson Bird: Bird is the word

Another one from the why wasn't he selected sooner files for mine. Was brought in for Mitchell Starc and bowled with nagging accuracy to strangle an end whilst the other bowlers did their work at the other. His ball to dismiss Cook was one of the balls of the season so far. He did a job that Starc has been unable to do to: create pressure and not give up easy runs. The question after this series will be: how do we find a place in the team for him, Siddle and a fit Pattinson when there are only 2 spots to fill between them?

4. The Pitch: Has England's bespoke pitch request backfired?

Andy Flower has gotten the pitch that he requested and it is probably too early to answer the question posed in this talking point but one expects that it is going to be better for batting today before breaking up and suiting the spinners. If Australia can post 450 using the best of the conditions, with Nathan Lyons form England may find themselve hoisted metaphorically on their own petard.

5. Tony Hill: is he really an Elite Umpire?

I know I am a massive advocate of respecting the umpires decision at all times but I have to say that Tony Hill is just not up to test match standard. If you needed more evidence after the Old Trafford test match you only had to see his miss of Joe Root's edge. Everyone on the ground, in the ground and watching on TV thought it was an edge. The only one who missed it was Umpire Hill. That was a decision of a man either not confident in his decision making OR how simple just missed. Either scenario does not bode well for his continued engagement in this series.

Day 1 ended with Australia all over England continuing the position from basically the whole of the 3rd test. Day 2 will be interesting to see the tactics that England use when they get on the field and with Australia can press it's advantage on what presents as the best day for batting on the Chester-le-Street pitch.

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