India vs England 2021, 1st Test: Day 1 - England Make Strong Start With Joe Root's Century And Dom Sibley's Patience Batting

The visitors England dominated almost the entire opening day of the four-match Test series opener against the hosts India at MA Chidambaram Stadium (Chepauk, Chennai).

After winning the toss, England Test captain Joe Root, who is playing his 100th Test, chose to bat first. Kuldeep Yadav again missed out the Test playing XI, while Shahbaz Nadeem surprisingly returned to the playing XI after replacing Axar Patel in the morning. Axar has been ruled out from this Test match due to left knee injury, while the young leg-spinner Rahul Chahar has also been added in the full Test squad along with Nadeem.

Talking about the day, with the strong batting performances from opener Dom Sibley and skipper Joe Root, the visitors scored 263/3 at the stumps of the day.

India vs England 2021, 1st Test: Day 1 – In-form Joe Root scored another century in his 100th Test match

Openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley set up a good start with a half-century partnership. But just before the lunch break, England lost two quick wickets. In the 24th over of the day, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin provided the breakthrough by dismissing Burns for 33 runs.

Around two overs later, Jasprit Bumrah successfully trapped Dan Lawrence for lbw, who failed to open his account. At lunch, England were batting on 67/2. Playing his first Test in India, it was Bumrah’s first Test wicket at home.

But since the second session, the visiting batsmen Dom Sibley and skipper Joe Root took the full control of the day. At first, they batted patiently as the scoreboard was moving slowly. But after getting settled down, Root comfortably handled the Indian bowlers and opener Sibley continued his patience batting. Even after the century partnership, they maintained their control batting.

While Sibley completed his fifty in 159 balls, England scored 140/2 at tea. In the early period of the third session, Root reached the 50-run mark in 110 balls. The English captain batted more aggressively after his half-century. He took 54 balls to complete his next fifty as he scored century in last three successive Test matches.

In the final over of the day, India got a huge relief as Jasprit Bumrah got his second wicket of the day after dismissing opener Sibley through the lbw. Though Sibley went for the review, it couldn’t save him. The English opener scored 87 runs off 286 balls with the help of 12 fours. The day finished with that wicket as Joe Root was standing at the other end by scoring 128 not out off 197 balls (14 fours and only six). Before that wicket, Root and Sibley put the 200 runs partnership for the third wicket.

Brief Scores: England – 263/3 (Joe Root 128*, Dom Sibley 87; Jasprit Bumrah 2/40)