India seamers dominate Day 1 as England suffer another batting collapse

India enjoyed the perfect start to their tour of England and produced a superb display on day 1 of the 1st Test at Nottingham. Virat Kohli’s side were relentless throughout the day, and the Indian seamers ran through the England batting line-up to dismiss the hosts for only 183 runs in the first innings, with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami picking up seven wickets between them. Barring a promising half-century from Joe Root, the English batters struggled with the seam and swing on offer on day one, with 3 of England’s top seven dismissed for a duck.

India opted to play with four seamers in this Test match at the expense of one of the best bowlers in the world – R Ashwin – and that strategy paid off after the visitors were put into bowl by Joe Root. Jasprit Bumrah struck in the very first over of the series to trap Rory Burns on his pads with a booming inswinger. Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley did well to see out the first hour without losing any wickets, but both batters fell either side of lunch after some relentless pressure from India’s seamers.

Jonny Bairstow was recalled to the English Test side in place of the injured Ollie Pope, and the Yorkshireman looked more controlled at the crease with his new off-stump guard. Bairstow left the ball impressively during his innings and slowly built up a steady partnership with Joe Root who reached his 50th half-century in Test cricket.

The duo shared a 74-run partnership for the fourth wicket, but India finally got the breakthrough they needed on the stroke of tea with Mohammad Shami getting the ball to nip back in off the seam to trap Bairstow on his pads for 29.

Bairstow’s dismissal opened the floodgates, and the Men in Blue struck immediately after the break with the wickets of Dan Lawrence and Jos Buttler to expose the tail. The England captain was then undone by the swing of Shardul Thakur on 64, while Ollie Robinson and Stuart Broad offered very little resistance to leave England reeling at 160-9.

Sam Curran gave England some hope with his spirited 27-run cameo that included five boundaries, but Jasprit Bumrah finally closed out the innings with a toe crushing yorker that was too good for James Anderson to bowl England out for 183.

The hosts had 13 overs in overcast conditions to make some inroads into the Indian batting lineup, but Rohit Sharma and the returning KL Rahul looked assured at the crease to cap off an excellent day’s play for India and put them in the driving seat of the 1st Test match of the series.