India end day one in control after bowling England out for 246 and putting visiting spinners to the sword as they trail by 127 with nine wickets in hand

Ben Stokes could only smile and shrug in resignation after falling victim to as close to an unplayable ball as you can get.

It took something special to end another invaluable contribution from the England captain and Jasprit Bumrah made sure of that, taking the top of Stokes middle stump with a delivery that looked like a quick leg break, on a first action-packed day of this highly anticipated series.

How England needed the new slender Stokes, moving encouragingly freely after his knee operation, to step up here and how the captain responded by lifting his side to a score that at least seemed to keep them in the hunt at Hyderabad.

But it was an effort put into sharp context as India left in their response more like Bazballers than England, with new opener Yashasvi Jaiswal providing a brutal introduction to Test cricket for Lancashire’s slow left-hander Tom Hartley.

Hartley was handed the new ball on his debut by Stokes in this virtually seamless England team, but Jaiswal showed his intentions by hitting his first ball in Test cricket for six, repeating the penalty from his fifth and sending him to all corners of the Rajiv Gandhi Save stadium.

By the end India had cruised to 119 for one, just 127 behind, with Jasiwal unbeaten on 76 and England desperately in need of wickets on the second morning to prevent this first Test becoming a reminder of the painful defeat in the 3- 1 series in 2021.

Bumrah may have provided the ball of the day to bowl Stokes for 70 and end the England innings on 246, but as expected it was the spin that dominated on a delivery that provided a sharp turn from the moment Ravindra Jadeja came on for the ninth over.

England knew what was coming, as they demonstrated by essentially naming four spinners, including Joe Root, who would team up with Mark Wood to pull off one of the most daring Bazball moves yet.

The problem came from trying to fend off the masterful Indian slow bowlers in Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel on a surface that was literally made for them.

England didn’t exactly do badly, posting a better score than all but one of their eight attempts on similar rotating pitches the last time they were here three years ago.

But, apart from Stokes, too many of their batsmen got out having done much of the hard work to establish themselves and as a result they found themselves at least 40 behind where they would have liked to be when Stokes won an important toss.

It all started well enough with Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett hitting 41 from the first eight overs, with little alarm and the usual positivity of an England team playing their first Test since the Stuart Broad-inspired Ashes final drama at the Oval.

But everything changed the moment Jadeja and Ashwin came together to take three wickets between them in the next eight overs for just 20, all three falling for five runs in 20 balls, as familiar English shortcomings in India came to the fore.

Duckett may have been unlucky enough to narrowly avoid falling to his tormentor during his 2016 visit here at Ashwin – perhaps it was unwise to attempt a rare conventional forward defensive battle – but Ollie Pope was concerned about making a short-lived frantic comeback after a serious injury to his and Crawley drove loosely into the middle.

It took the Yorkshiremen in Root and Jonny Bairstow to turn the tide at 61 as the fourth wicket ended only when Bairstow, back at number 5 in the absence of Harry Brook, received another almost unplayable delivery to be bowled on top . punch from Patel.

Much will depend on Root if England have any hope in this series and he may have had a stroke of luck here when obscure technological evidence gave him a feather on a ball that would otherwise have trapped him.

But after overtaking Sachin Tendulkar to become the leading run-scorer in all Anglo-India Tests, a considerable achievement, Root rather sloppily topped a sweep over Jadeja and with him went England’s last realistic hope of an impressive score.

Things would have been a lot worse for England had Stokes not proven he was ready for this series with a strict fitness regime following surgery on that chronic left knee that saw him lose almost a stone and a half in weight.

The England captain batted responsibly but with bursts of class and power, not least when he hit Jadeja for three fours in an over and then hit the same bowler for successive sixes, the first of which brought up his half-century.

By the time Stokes had finished, Jadeja had gone almost five times, but the Indian spin trio had taken eight wickets between them and not a single English batsman had even offered his captain the necessary support.

Ben Foakes pushed hard at Patel as he returned to the side and Rehan Ahmed fell to a Bumrah cutter before Hartley and Mark Wood offered at least some resistance until master Bumrah had the final say.

There were many conjectures about the format of England’s opening attack, but although Stokes had said he was considering bowling Root to Jaiswal, it was Hartley who stepped up alongside Wood.

But this was nothing the Ormskirk florist’s son has experienced so far in a modest first-class career, which didn’t stop England choosing him for this series so he could copy Patel’s length, angle and speed.

Hartley finished wicketless after nine expensive overs but was unlucky not to claim Shubman Gill for a ball that looked very close to lbw but which DRS ruled had gone over the top. To add insult to injury for England, Stokes burned his third review all within the first 14 overs in a desperate bid to get Hartley a wicket.

The only one to fall came in a rush of blood from Rohit Sharma who saw him hole out to who else but Stokes running back from mid on to Jack Leach, the only spinner so far who has anything like the threat and turn of the attack offered. Indian threesome.

It’s still early, of course, but it’s that comparison between these two sides’ spin attacks that will likely decide this series. And England need to get up to speed quickly.