England vs India 2018: 1st Test, Birmingham; Day 1 - Lunch Report

England had a solid start to this Test series as they lost only one wicket in the form of Alastair Cook for 83 runs in the morning session of day one of the first Test against India at Edgbaston in Birmingham.

Meanwhile, the batsmen backed Joe Root’s decision to bat first on an overcast morning. Root felt the pitch looks hard and will be great to bat early on and his batsmen proved him right.

“It looks a good surface, a bit of cloud cover, there’s some moisture which should burn off, looks good to bat,” Root said at the toss.

On the hand, much to everybody’s surprise, India dropped their regular Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara owing to poor form. Pujara has struggled to score runs during his recent County stint with Yorkshire.

England openers Cook and Keaton Jennings started off well smashing loose deliveries to the boundary. Pace spearhead Umesh Yadav for India was erratic giving it too easy for the England batsmen.

On the other hand, Ishant Sharma posed some serious questions as bowled consistently on the fourth stump corridor.

There were speculations over India’s slip fielding which once again came to the forefront when Ajinkya Rahane dropped one. Jennings edges one in the direction of third and fourth slip, Rahane from fourth intercepts Kohli only to put it down.

India will have to work on this as suffered badly because of poor fielding in the last tour as well.

However, Ravichandran Ashwin drew the first blood when Virat Kohli brought him at one change. It was an absolute peach of a delivery from Ashwin in his first over itself. Tossed up beautifully, Cook came half-forward and tried to fend without accounting for the turn. It bounces a bit to go past the bats and take the top of the off-stump.

Since then, it was a one-way show with Root and Jennings dominating the proceedings for England against India in Birmingham.

Moreover, things started to ease out for them as they play late and waited for the loose deliveries. Both the batsmen looked in good nick as England takes the first session.

Brief Score: England 83/1 ( Jennings 38*, Ashwin 1/13)