India 21 for 0 trail England 183 (Root 64, Bumrah 4-46, Shami 3-28) by 162 runs
India took the last seven England wickets for 45 runs to bowl the hosts out for 183 after they won the toss and batted in tough batting conditions. India's openers knocked off 21 of those without being separated. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, the two senior bowlers in the absence of Ishant Sharma and R Ashwin, took seven wickets between them in 37.4 overs. Once again, Joe Root looked like a level above his batting team-mates, scoring 64 assured runs off 108 balls in an innings that went at 2.78 an over.
England will need to look at five or six wickets that they didn't make India work hard enough for. It started early as Rory Burns fell for Bumrah's two-card trick in the first over in a hectic start.
India the country did not even have time to properly debate the exclusion of Ashwin - who's in the form of his life - from the XI, to find a combination that fit the conditions and addressed India's long tail. Ishant had failed a fitness test in the morning.
Bumrah took five balls to change the talking point. Four of them moved gently away from the left-hand opener Rory Burns before the fourth one swung back in. In 2018, when Bumrah got Keaton Jennings in the same fashion, it might have been a surprise, but by now, experts argue, you have to be expecting that delivery as a left-hand batter and not get beaten as comprehensively as Burns did.
Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley saw off the new ball with a hard-fought 42-run stand in nearly 21 overs, but Rishabh Pant managed to convince his captain to take a second review in the same Mohammed Siraj over to get the wicket of the fluent Crawley. Three balls after an enthusiastic review for a catch off the inside edge and pad cost India, Pant implored Kohli to take another, similar review. This time the inside edge was taken.
This was minutes before lunch, but in the intervening overs, Root got away with three boundaries in an over - one of them streaky - and also looked to attack Bumrah in the final over before the break.
After lunch, India operated with Bumrah and Shami, but the line of attack shifted a bit, almost like they decided the ball wasn't doing much and they needed to get back to the leg trap they had set for Australia in Australia. Soon enough, Sibley got a leading edge to a ball sliding down leg from Shami, offering short midwicket a catch. A "nothing wicket" on the surface, but India did have a field for straight lines: a short-forward square leg to go with the short midwicket.
From 66 for 3, England found their most assured batting period with Root and Jonny Bairstow batting together for 22.5 overs. Root showed more attacking intent than any other specialist batter, scored faster than all of them and was more in control than any of them. Bairstow got comfortable as time wore on, but in one over split by the tea break, England were rocked back significantly.
Shami and Bumrah have had to work the hardest for their wickets in England among their contemporaries. As of lunch on day one, they had needed to induce 19 false responses apiece for a wicket in England, the highest among fast bowlers since 2014. James Anderson and Stuart Broad, by comparison, take about 10 false responses each.
It is part luck, part lengths, but their luck was about to change. It had already begun to turn for Shami with that leg-side delivery to get Sibley, but now even reviews were going to fall in place. In the last over before tea, Shami bowled that perfect seaming delivery to trap Bairstow in front, but two sounds probably influenced umpire Richard Kettleborough to rule it in the batter's favour. Kohli couldn't get affirmation from anyone in front of the wicket that the ball had missed the bat, but went with the review nonetheless.
It was the perfect length, seaming in enough to beat the inside edge but not the leg stump. India went to tea buoyant, England on 138 for 4. Four balls into the final session, the final delivery of that Shami over, Dan Lawrence tickled one fine down the leg side. Unlucky Shami? Not today. Shami and Bumrah proceeded to toy around with Jos Buttler for 17 balls before Bumrah took the outside edge through to Pant. It didn't cost India a run.
The pressure created by these two, the low economy rate, meant Shardul Thakur could bowl attacking lines and lengths. He is an incredibly optimistic bowler. His strength is swing, and he continues to bowl full lengths and continues to look to swing it from the stumps. Kohli gave him a man at cover and midwicket to allow that mode of attack. He started his new spell with a really full outswinger to Root, who played for the swing, but the ball pitched and seamed the other way. Any shorter, and it would have seamed down the leg side. This one trapped him plumb.
Three balls later, Ollie Robinson gifted mid-on some catching practice. Soon Bumrah decided it was "toes day" for nose-or-toes Stuart Broad, trapping him lbw with a full one. At 160 for 9, Sam Curran found time to squeeze in his usual cameo, hitting 27 before a perfect yorker from Bumrah ended the innings with Anderson's wicket.
It wasn't an easy 55 minutes for India's new opening combination of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma. England drew 17 false responses from them in the 13 overs possible before stumps, but no edge went towards a fielder and they never got trapped in front. India took their 10 wickets in 93 false responses.
