England vs India, First Test, Day 1: 5 Talking Points
England ended the first day of the first Test against India at Edgbaston at 285 for 9 after winning the toss and batting. Joe Root top-scored for the hosts with 80, but ran himself out while going for a second run to miss out on a three-figure score.
His fellow county and English teammate Jonny Bairstow was the other star of the day, making 70 before being bowled by Umesh Yadav, as the duo got the English innings going after they found themselves at 112 for 3.
But then India came storming back in the final session of the day claiming six wickets thanks to some splendid bowling from Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Shami and they ensured that India held the upper hand at the end of the opening day.
Here are the five talking points from the day:
Did India pick the right team?
Even before the first ball was bowled, there was one major talking point which was the selection decisions made by Virat Kohli and the team management.
India went with an extremely pace-heavy attack, comprising of Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya, opting to play Ravichandran Ashwin as the lone spinner. But the decision that surprised everybody was the omission of Cheteshwar Pujara, who was benched as KL Rahul was handed the chance to bat at 3 and Shikhar Dhawan was given another opportunity at the top of the order to partner Murali Vijay.
It was only the latest addition to the Kohli bag of surprises that he has thrown to the cricket watching public in India and around the world and it remains to be seen if these are indeed the signs to come for the future as well.