Captain bats first

Australian captain Mark Taylor won the toss and elected to bat on the opening day of the first Ashes test against England early…

Australian captain Mark Taylor won the toss and elected to bat on the opening day of the first Ashes test against England early this morning.

South Australian paceman Jason Gillespie was named 12th man for Australia.

Conditions at the Gabba in Brisbane were fine for the start of play.

After the first hour of play Australia were 26 for 0 (13.4 overs). Taylor had scored 10 runs with Michael Slater on 13 with three extras.

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Australia: M Taylor (captain), M Slater, J Langer, M Waugh, S Waugh, R Ponting, I Healy, D Fleming, S MacGill, G McGrath, M Kasprowicz, J Gillespie (12th man).

England: A Stewart, M Atherton, M Butcher, N Hussain, G Thorpe, M Ramprakash, D Cork, D Gough, A Mullally, A Fraser, R Croft, J Crawley (12th man).