Alastair Cook has played down suggestions that he may step down as England captain after the forthcoming five-match Test series against India.
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Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli and Murali Vijay dropped three catches of both the openers in the first session itself.
Cook lost the one-day worldwide captaincy shortly before England’s debacle of a campaign in the last World Cup – and that experience seems to have taught him once and for all to take nothing for granted.
After failing to impress in the 1-1 drawn series in Bangladesh, this was a vastly improved batting display by the tourists, albeit after the top order was again knocked over relatively cheaply.
India, who lost the advantage of the toss at home for the first time after eight Tests, also let themselves down with sloppy close-in catching, grassing three in all, to let England off the hook.
Cook ran out of luck when he was trapped lbw on 21 by Ravindra Jadeja.
Hameed, the first teenager to play for England in 19 years, scored a composed 31 and Root added: “I thought he played extremely well and it’s nice to see him start his worldwide career with such control”.
Root and Ali batted through the second session to guide England to 209-3 at tea, adding 107 from 31 overs.
Even after Root’s dismissal, England were still taking their chance to puncture any preconceptions and sow some doubts.
Cook, who will surpass Michael Atherton’s England record of 54 matches as test captain after the first match in India, replaced Strauss as skipper in 2012. In the previous 12 Tests, the highest by a visiting batsman was Mitchell Starc’s 99 for Australia at Mohali in March 2013.
Joe Root was especially impressive. Or will England surprise India and dominate Day 2 as well?
But he clarified his comments on the eve of the opening test against India at Rajkot.
“I’m sure batting with them will take it to another level as well”.
Ashwin returned figures of 2/108 while Jadeja notched up 1/59.
With Shami regularly needing extensive treatment on an apparent hamstring injury, having pulled out mid-over before tea, India were in comparative disarray.
He was happy with the start England have had. If Kohli and co get started while it is still in this state, they are likely to enjoy it greatly. They can sleep well tonight.
“When it’s speeded up it looks a bit unusual, but I was very lucky to get an umpire’s call with an lbw earlier on – and you have to take the rough with the smooth sometimes and just get on with it”. This has been as good as I’ve seen him bat.
“I think if we can get 500 that would be a fantastic effort. I thought Mo was outstanding as well, look forward to watching him continue tomorrow”. “It’s pleasing, something to build on and a good position to be in”. Root had already completed a sublime 11th Test hundred earlier, before being dismissed to the day’s only controversial moment, when he chipped a return catch to Umesh Yadav, who caught the ball, then dropped it in celebration, only for the umpires to deem… India have scored 15 hundreds in that time. First-innings runs are likely to be far easier to score than second.
But Ashwin extracted his revenge on England two overs later by sending back Hameed with a ball that turned in a bit and got past the defensive shot of the rookie opener who played outside the line to be rapped on back foot.
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Seamer Stuart Broad, meanwhile, is set to make his 100th Test appearance for England in Rajkot.
