'Special catch': Fans go wild over 'insane' Jos Buttler effort

Cricket fans have been left seriously impressed by an outstanding diving catch from England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler to dismiss Australia's Marcus Harris.

After opening pair Harris and David Warner struggled to score in the early overs against a brutal starting spell from recalled England duo Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson, pressure was mounting at Adelaide Oval.

'WHAT A FARCE': Cricket world rages over Pat Cummins 'disgrace'

SURELY NOT: England about to fall for one of the great cricketing con jobs?

Harris had earlier survived a compelling LBW appeal from Broad after successfully appealing the the umpire's decision to give him out.

The strong opening spell continued after before Harris eventually attempted to flick a hook a shorter ball from Broad.

He didn't connect well at all, floating it just in range for Buttler to make an impressive diving catch to send Harris back to the sheds for just three runs.

Fans were amazed at the athletic play from Buttler, taking to Twitter to praise the Englishman's efforts.

Australia were left at 1/4 after eight overs, with Marnus Labuschagne coming in to help Warner steady the ship and begin to put some runs on the board.

Steve Smith had earlier won the toss and elected to bat, captaining Australia for the first time since 2018 after Pat Cummins was ruled out of the match hours before it was due to begin.

Cummins had been seated nearby a restaurant patron who tested postitive for Covid-19, forcing the fast bowler into isolation.

Steve Smith captains Australia after Pat Cummins ruled out

Cummins has been deemed a close contact of a confirmed COVID case after sitting at the table next to the case at an Adelaide restaurant on Wednesday night.

With Cummins forced to isolate for seven days under South Australia's health rules, Smith returns to the captaincy for the first time since being stripped of the role following the sandpaper cheating scandal in South Africa in March 2018.

"It's a huge honour obviously," Smith said after winning the toss.

"It has been a pretty interesting morning, a bit been going on.

"I feel for Patty obviously missing this game.

"But I will try and lead on the way he started last week and hopefully we can have a really good week."

The Australians had already confirmed West Australian quick Jyhe Richardson as the replacement for the injured Josh Hazlewood (side strain).

England captain Joe Root said Cummins' withdrawal was "unfortunate"

"It's currently the world that we're living in," Root said.

"And it's one of the things you're obviously pretty wary of as players, it's just one of those very unfortunate set of circumstances.

"But we fully respect the rest of their squad and we know what they're capable of so we need to play well.

"We need to get ourselves in, especially in the first innings and make that big score, and hopefully first-up take some early wickets."

With AAP

Click here to sign up to our newsletter for all the latest and breaking stories from Australia and around the world.