England skipper Joe Root led from the front by notching up his 20th Test century in his 100th Test, as the visitors were firmly in control at 263/3 at the end of Day 1 of the opening test at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Friday.
India surprisingly picked Shahbaz Nadeem ahead of Kuldeep Yadav after Axar Patel, who looked set for his Test debut injured his left knee. The hosts included veteran Ishant Sharma in place of Mohammed Siraj. England included Rory Burns in place of injured Zak Crawley.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, the English pair of Dom Sibley and Rory Burns got their team off to a solid start by adding 63 runs for the opening stand. Jasprit Bumrah playing his first Test at home almost had Burns off the first ball but Rishabh Pant dropped a tough chance diving to his right.
Ravi Ashwin finally broke the stand by dismissing the latter who fell to an ill- advised reverse sweep for 33.
Bumrah bagged his first test wicket on Indian soil by dismissing Dan Lawrence leg before wicket for a duck, leaving England at 63/2.
Sibley along with Root resurrected the innings and frustrated the Indian bowlers with a brilliant 200 run stand for the third wicket. The former was trapped leg before wicket to Bumrah in the final over of the day for a well made 87, narrowly missing out on what would have been a deserved century.
The England skipper however remained unbeaten on 128- his knock came off 197 balls with 14 fours and a six.
Stumps at the end of Day 1- England 263/3.( Dom Sibley 87, Joe Root 128*, Ravichandran Ashwin 1/68, Jasprit Bumrah 2/40)
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