Lunch England 102 for 3 (Root 35*, Ashwin 2-35) v India

On what seemed like a morning of nerves for everybody - as if keeping in with the political climate in the world and the economic climate in India - India emerged with advantage with three wickets in the second hour.

Winning the toss and dropped twice behind the wicket, Alastair Cook enjoyed more luck before the series was two overs old than Kane Williamson did all series, but England - veterans of DRS - made poor use of the reviews twice, losing Cook when he was not out and then wasting it when debutant Haseeb Hameed was dead plumb. The 19-year-old debutant, the youngest England player to be opening in his first Test, was partly culpable on both occasions: first discouraging the Cook review when the ball clearly missing and then going for a wasteful review on Joe Root's advice.

It was India who fluffed their lines in the first hour. Having lost their first toss at home under Virat Kohli, India's quicks made an impressive start, beating Cook's bat or hitting the outside half of it more often than Cook was in control. On a pitch not expected to have too much of bounce, the cordon had crept in closer. The first chance, though, travelled at a comfortable height to Ajinkya Rahane at gully, but it arguably came too fast at him. Mohammed Shami was the bowler here. In the next over, Umesh Yadav got a soft edge, which was turned into a chance because Kohli was closer than normal at second slip, but India captain couldn't hold on to the most difficult of the three chances in the morning. The resultant two runs took Cook to 3.

Hameed, who had looked solid, suggesting he was an old-fashioned opener who didn't mind the new fashion of cutting in the air when the ball is short, then edged Yadav in the sixth over. At shin high and regulation pace, this was the simplest chance of the morning, but M Vijay dropped it. Hameed was on 13 then.

The introduction of spin just before the drinks break brought the run rate down after it had nudged four at one stage, but with not much turn on offer England looked quite comfortable going into the drinks break. Cook looked to move across to Ravindra Jadeja who turns the ball back in for him, and Haseeb did the same to R Ashwin. To the first ball after drinks, though, Cook got too far across and was beaten on the inside edge to a shortish delivery. Given out, he had a chat with Hameed, but walked off. Had he not, DRS would have reinstated him because the ball was missing the leg stump by a long way.

It's unlikely anybody would have told Hameed he could have saved his captain, but he looked solid in negating Ashwin and Jadeja in the first few exchanges. The only criticism of him would be he missed out on a short ball and two full tosses from Ashwin, a slow starter, early in the piece. Ashwin then moved round the wicket to ask Hameed what more had to offer, after an off-stump guard had negated the bowler on a first-day pitch. With his 11th ball from round the wicket to Hameed, Ashwin had him dead in front, with an offbreak that didn't turn as much as the batsman expected it to. This, Ashwin's ninth over, was also around a couple of overs on from the time he had hit his length.

Perhaps the only error Root made in his one hour in the middle was to ask Hameed to review this one. Otherwise Root looked in silken touch, especially with his cover-driving. In two balls, in the 23rd over, he displayed his mastery with two drives. Ashwin, who was not shy of asking the batsmen to drive, pitched the first ball up but not right up. At the last moment in that drive, Root used his wrists a little to open the face and beat cover slightly to his left. The next ball was a touch fuller, and he unfurled an orthodox cover drive to beat the same man to his right.

Root ended the session unbeaten on 35 off 50, but the way England lost three wickets to spin in the first session of the Test, with the pitch not yet turning as much as Indian pitches of late have, Root needed to be unbeaten at stumps if England were to hope of an advantage on day one. At the other end India continued to do their business. Ben Duckett, demoted to No. 4 after an average tour of Bangladesh, used his fast hands to hit Ashwin for three boundaries off the first 14 balls he faced from Ashwin, but his fear of the lbw accounted for him to what turned out to be the last ball before lunch. He kept looking to stay leg side of Ashwin's deliveries, and edged this offbreak to give India the edge at the end of a gripping session. That slipper Rahane redeemed himself with a sharp low catch to his right would have made the wicket a touch sweeter.