India dominated day one of the first Test as England’s fragile batting line-up was exposed again at Trent Bridge.
Only Joe Root (64), who went past Sir Alastair Cook to become England’s all-time leading run-scorer across all formats during the course of his innings, made a score of note as the home side slumped from 138-3 just before tea to 183 all out midway through the evening session.
Jasprit Bumrah (4-46) finished it off for Virat Kohli’s side as the wickets were shared among the seamers, Mohammed Shami claiming 3-28, Shardul Thakur (2-41) got two and there was one for Mohammed Siraj (1-48).
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India openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul then survived the 13 overs before the close, taking the visitors to 21 without loss.
Having made the decision to go in with the extra batsman, selecting both Jonny Bairstow and Dan Lawrence, England won the toss and chose to bat and it did not take long for India to get stuck into the top-order as Bumrah followed four outswingers with an inswinger to trap Rory Burns (0) lbw in the first over.
Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley battled in the face of some impressive India bowling before the latter was dismissed 15 minutes before lunch following a brave review from Kohli, he had gone upstairs the ball before and lost a review but was rewarded for going again as UltraEdge showed Crawley (27) had got an inside edge through to Rishabh Pant.
Sibley (18) followed early in the afternoon session, falling into the trap set by Shami and chipping straight to short midwicket to leave England 66-3.
Root, who had got off the mark with three boundaries on the bounce, was joined by Bairstow and the two Yorkshiremen went about rebuilding.
Root looked in excellent touch, driving beautifully through the covers while Bairstow was dogged early on before freeing himself up as the session wore on.
A mix-up almost saw Bairstow run out when Root belatedly turned down a second run but the throw went to the wrong end, Bairstow was able to scramble home and with that moment behind them, the pair brought up the 50 partnership from 112 balls.
After Bairstow nailed back-to-back drives off Siraj, Root went through to his 50th half-century in Test cricket from 89 balls and with tea approaching, England looked reasonably placed to push on in the evening session.
Instead, it was India who came surging back with Shami starting the England collapse when he had Bairstow (29) lbw in the last over of the afternoon.
Lawrence (0) then feathered behind down leg when Shami completed the over after the break and while Root was still going strong, Jos Buttler never looked comfortable and was finally put out of his misery when he nicked behind off Bumrah for an 18-ball duck.
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Any hopes of England making a competitive first-innings total went with Root, pinned in front by Thakur in the 59th over.
Ollie Robinson (0) was gone before the over was out and when Broad (4) was plumb lbw to Bumrah, England had lost 6-22 in less than 10 overs.
An entertaining cameo from Sam Curran (27no) boosted England’s total a little before Bumrah bowled James Anderson with a superb yorker to bring the innings to an end.
With the batsmen again unable to provide the desired foundation for England, it was over to the bowlers to try and salvage something from the day but Rohit and Rahul held firm to leave India in a very strong position going into day two.
Watch day two of the first Test between England and India at Trent Bridge from 10.15am, Thursday on Sky Sports The Hundred and Main Event.
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