Big Bash League has well and truly replaced the traditional coin toss with a "bat flip". In the opening match of 2018-19 edition of BBL at The Gabba, Adelaide Strikers won the bat flip against Brisbane Heat and opted to bowl first.

Instead of the conventional "heads" or "tails", captains are ought to call "roofs" or flats" at the toss. Legendary Australia opener Matthew Hayden did the bat flip as both the captains, Colin Ingram (Strikers) and Chris Lynn (Heat), looked amused out there in the middle. Ingram called for roofs and ended up winning the first ever bat flip in cricket.

Taking to Twitter, the official Twitter account of BBL posted a video of the innovative trend and captioned it as: “.@StrikersBBL win the bat flip and will bowl first #BBL08”.

The bat flip concept has been a hard pill to swallow for the traditionalists. Earlier, former Australia speedster Mitchell Johnson blasted the needless ideas that have taken away the attention on more important elements such as game development.

However, Cricket Australia's head of the Big Bash League, Kim McConnie, has said that BBL is all about embracing fresh ideas.

"For me it's a great moment which reflects what BBL is about. If you think about a coin toss, it's not really what kids do. If you're out in the backyard what do you do? You toss the bat to decide," McConnie had said.

"You'd be surprised at the science that's gone into this. It is a specially weighted bat to make sure that it is 50-50. I've got it from great authority at our Kookaburra friends that this is a tested and weighted bat to deliver that equity," he added.