Australia: 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Phil Jaques, 3 Ricky Ponting, 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Andrew Symonds, 6 Mike Hussey, 7 Adam Gilchrist, 8 Brett Lee, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Stuart Clark, 11 Stuart MacGill.

Sri Lanka: 1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Marvan Atapattu, 3 Michael Vandort, 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Chamara Silva, 7 Prasanna Jayawardene, 8 Chaminda Vaas, 9 Farveez Maharoof, 10 Dilhara Fernando, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan.

Sri Lanks have won the toss and have elected to bowl in moist overcast conditions. Showers are predicted to cause some stoppages throughout the day, but conditions are expected to improve over the next few days

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After only one over, play has stopped due to rain.............. Aus 0-0.

Malinga surprisingly has been ommited from the 11.

CA has also decided on strong measures in regards to crowd behavior, but Aussie fans have still retained the right to no-ball Muralitheran from the stands.
Cricinfo - Strong anti-racism measures for Gabba

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Obviously "Magilla" (Stuart MacGill) scared the selectors enough to play him.

Maybe Brad Hogg should go and do a dummy spit now and plaster it all over the media that his career is over if he is not picked in the next match.

In fact Magilla has set a precedent now all the player's should ring up the media and threaten their career's will be over if they are not selected.

I suppose it is easy to be brave now Warnie has retired. If he had tried it when Warnie was playing he would be lucky to get a fairwell wave.

1/161 at tea. Welcome to Australia Sri Lanka. This pitch will get quicker as the test goes on, and will offer movement off the wicket for the bowler who chooses to bend his back. The Aussie bowlers will do that. The Sri Lankan bowlers are not, and frankly, are bowling like a bunch of nancy boys at the moment. If Aus racks up a decent first innings total, then good night Sri Lanka.

On McGill. The big hope for me is that he fails dismally against Sri Lanka and gets dropped for the Indian tests. Hoggy has got the wood on India, and despite their claims that they don't fear Hogg, i reckon they do.

The armchair experts look at the crickinfo stats and decide that Hogg does not have the goods, but anyone who has the ability to apply critical analysis, and has the chance to actually see what is currently coming out of his hands at the moment, will draw the conclusion that right now, at this point in time, he is one of the best spin bowlers in the game.

Man i hope they give Hoggy a crack at the Indians

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How annoyed would you be if you had a career like MacGill. Succesful test player that should have played more. He beat Warne every time they played in the same side. Finally Warne retires and a second rate left arm legspin bowler might take your place as second spinner. Now im not bagging Hogg's position in one day matches where he has been great but he has not been good enough in the longer version of the game to even be concidered for a test spot.

Go the Aussies 1/161

Jaques 68 no (9x4's)
Ponting 46 no (7x4's)

Hayden out caught for 43 (5x4's)

Still to bat

Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Michael Hussey, Adam Gilchrist, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clark, Stuart MacGill

Vaas 1/35 off 12
Maharoof 0/39 off 16
Fernando 0/53 off 10
Muralitharan 0/30 off 8

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Bill Ponsford - The only one who could play in Bradman’s company and make it a duet.

Phil Jacques has just scored his maiden Test century. Well done.

There was never really much doubt that the batting line up would be fine as they have only lost 1 player,it was always going to be interesting to see how Warne and McGrath were replaced and that is still to come.Well done Jaques on his ton,should be the start of a good test career now.

Murali has bowled beautifully,Fernando has bowled pies and the Sri Lankans are probably deeply regretting those missed chances.

Well lets just compare the two options Quagmire.

On one hand you have McGill.

(1)He has just come back from injury, and is fat and unfit.
(2)By his own admission he "was bowling pies" in the leadup to the test against Queensland.
(3)Is a liability in the field and will likely be worse now than in the past due to his lack of fitness.
(4)He is a terrible batsman.
(5)He is a lone wolf who has trouble fitting in with his team-mates.
(6)He got absolutely murdered by India 4 years ago when he was a far better bowler than what he is now (Remember him spitting the dummy when he was booed and heckled by the SCG crowd for bowling such utter rubbish)
(7)He is low on confidence.

On the other hand we have Hogg.

(1)He is totally match fit and has no injury problems,
(2)Has been bowling fantastically in the past few months including 8-88 in the leadup game against the Vics
(3) Is an excellent fielder
(4)Is a very handy batsman
(5) Is an excellent team man
(6) Totally has the wood on India who for the life of them cannot pick his wrong-un
(7) Brimming with confidence

Now when you compare the two, i cannot for the life of me find one redeeming feature in the selection of McGill. Yes he has a good test record, but so do many other bowlers of the past who are now retired due to being past their use-by date. Australia need to select on form and abilty, not on past records - i would have thought the Aus selectors would have learnt their lesson from the Jason Gillespie debacle in England 2005, but unfortunately for Hogg, that does'nt seem to be the case. I'm preparing myself for a summer of full-tosses and long-hops - and that's not from the under 12's team i coach

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Seamer, I agree that on form Hogg should be in. However, I think his much-publicised "trouble with fitting in" is greatly exxagerated. Here's a very interesting article in the Australian which looks at some of the misconceptions about him- MacGill insists spinning foes had common thread | The Australian.

Basically, I don't think that you have to drink beer at the pub to be a good team player.

Tell that to Andrew Flintoff

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Frank Skinner: "You know when Glenn McGrath trod on that cricket ball? Don't you wish it would've been a landmine?"