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:

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Did India pick the right team?

Should Pujara have been dropped?

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.

India's slip catching woes continue

Rahane dropped one early on in his innings

Early in the day, one of India's long-standing issues came back to haunt them as Ajinkya Rahane dropped one of the bowling of Ishant Sharma to extend Keaton Jennings's stay at the crease.

On previous tours, along with batting mishaps and pedestrian bowling display, India's fielding, in particular, slip catching has come under the scanner and often dropped chances have proven to be extremely costly.

It is an area where India have to constantly keep working and hopefully, in the coming days we see some neat catching with the odd moment of brilliance thrown in at that region.

Alastair Cook falls early

Cook fell for 13 to an absolute beauty from Ashwin

If England are to do well in the series, one would think that Alastair Cook would have a big role to play with the bat in hand.

On Wednesday, though, it did not prove to be his day as he fell for 13 to an absolute beauty from Ravichandran Ashwin and England will hope that if he does get to bat in the second innings in this game, he can come good and carry that confidence into the remainder of the series.

Root-Bairstow set the early tone

Root and Bairstow put on 104 runs to bring England back into the game

After Alastair Cook fell early in the innings, the burden of taking England to a score of respectability fell on the shoulders of Joe Root and the others and the skipper stood up to the challenge, scoring a well-compiled 80 before being run-out by his opposite number.

Giving him company in getting the innings back on track was Jonny Bairstow who made 70 as the duo put on 104 runs for the fourth wicket before falling in quick succession.

From England's perspective, they would hope this is the start of something big for the duo in the series.

Ashwin-Shami shine for India

Ashwin was India's best bowler with the ball on Day One

Judging purely by his performance in the warm-up game, you would have thought that Mohammed Shami might not have played the first Test. But Kohli had other ideas and backed the pacer, who was returning after some amount of time to international cricket.

It didn't seem like he was because, among all the fast bowlers on show, he looked the best of the lot, bowling at a decent pace and keeping his end going. He was rewarded for his exploits with a couple of wickets.

Giving him company on the day was Ravichandran Ashwin, who was playing his first match for India in close to two months, but looked in excellent rhythm right throughout the day, picking up figures of 4 for 60 in 25 overs.

The effort of these two proved to be crucial for India to restrict England to 285 for 9 at the end of day One.