England debutant Tom Hartley struggled with the ball as India and Yashasvi Jaiswal showed their class on day one in Hyderabad.
England did well to reach 246 all-out from 64.3 overs after winning the toss and electing to bat, thanks largely to a well-crafted 70 by skipper, Ben Stokes.
England would have been quietly confident at the innings break; however, this was short-lived with Jaiswal launching Hartley’s first ball in Test cricket (in the second over of the innings) into the stands for six.
This set the tone as India continued to attack, finishing the day on 119-1 from just 23 overs, with Jaiswal unbeaten on 76 from 70 deliveries and Shubman Gill on 14 after Rohit Sharma was caught by Stokes off the bowling of Jack Leach for 24.
Hartley, who became the first English spinner to open the bowling on Test debut since 1921, finished with disappointing figures of 9-0-63-0 as England’s spinners failed to extract as much turn, or show the same amount of control as India’s spinners.
Earlier in the day England’s openers had started well, putting on 55 for the first wicket, before Duckett and number three, Ollie Pope, fell in quick succession to Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
Zak Crawley was out soon after caught by Mohammed Siraj off Ashwin leaving Yorkshire pair Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root to steady the ship as they put on 61 for the fourth wicket.
When they both departed, England had slumped to 125-5 as Stokes battled on and started to accelerate with wickets continuing to fall around him, before he was the last man out, clean bowled by Jasprit Bumrah advancing down the wicket.
Eight of England’s wickets fell to spin, but Jaiswal took a particular liking to England’s inexperienced spinners using his feet and sweeping at every opportunity, with Mark Wood only bowling two overs, and England burning all three of their reviews.
Jaiswal, Gill, and India will be looking to bat long tomorrow to build a substantial first innings lead, whilst Stokes and Brendon McCullum have plenty to think about after a difficult first day in the five-match series.
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