England vs India - First Test, Day 1: Things that stood out

The much-anticipated clash between the No.1 ranked side and the first side to play 1000 test matches started in some style. Here are a few talking points from Day 1.

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Team selection

There is always a sense of excitement in the air when Kohli gives the team sheet during the toss time. On top of that, Ravi Shastri promised to surprise everyone throughout the course of the series. He did keep up his promise as the team management preferred to go with KL Rahul at number 3 spot instead of Pujara.

With the kind of form that he is in, Rahul definitely deserves a spot in the XI. But everyone presumed that Rahul would open with Vijay and Pujara would hold on to his number 3 spot. Will this decision backfire like it did when they excluded Rahane in South Africa is yet to be seen.

Also, with the pitch being on the drier side and the heat wave staying much longer than usual in England, two spinners in the XI would not have been a bad option. But, the team management decided to go with a lone spinner in Ashwin.

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Ashwin is not a home track bully anymore:

Ravichandran Ashwin is probably the most intelligent bowler of this bowling unit. He always had the skills and varieties, however, he was not able to perform as well as he would have liked on overseas Test tours. But recently, he's been bowling like a dream.

He has learned how to use his variations and stays calm and patiently builds up the pressure that is needed to pick up a wicket. He generated a sharp turn and got the ball to drift beautifully to pick up Cook. By varying the pace, he always kept the batsmen guessing and often beat them on the flight.

Picking up four wickets on Day 1 in England is a very big achievement for a spinner. After a successful South Africa tour, he's starting to shred off the tag of 'home track bully'.

Captain Kohli

One simply can't keep this guy out of the game. Kohli, the captain, spurred a few surprises with the team selection first, then he made everyone raise their eyebrows by bringing on Ashwin for the 7th over. But Ashwin responded beautifully by picking up Cook with a classic offie's dismissal.

Then Kohli showed why he is making those fitness tests mandatory by inducing an athletic run-out. When the match was tilting towards England's side, Kohli produced an extraordinary effort to send the England captain back to the pavilion, which proved to be the turning point of the day.

Dropped catches

This Indian Team is probably the fittest unit in the history of Indian Cricket. The ground fielding is top notch, and the athleticism of the players has improved vastly. But one factor that has been consistently letting down Team India is its poor catching.

Since 2013, India have dropped more catches than they have caught. Rahane dropped Jennings at the start of the day and Karthik dropped Curran at the end of the day. Even though it did not prove to be costly this time around, dropped catches will come back to haunt the team.