Jury still out on 'Bazball' as India put England under pressure in first Test

The five-Test series in India was going to be the biggest test of England's cavalier approach to batting in red-ball cricket. Unfortunately for them, the opening day of the Hyderabad Test on Thursday was not great advertisement for "Bazball".

After a manic day with numerous plays and misses and sharp turn for spinners, India took control of the match, and also exposed some major flaws in England's batting approach.

The visitors decided to bat first and openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley went after India's new ball bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj, humming along at five an over. But both seamers beat the bat of the openers more often than not.

India introduced the spin inside 10 overs. Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin were going to pose a whole new level of threat because when they beat the bat, they generally strike.

Ashwin did so early, trapping Duckett lbw. Ollie Pope fended at Jadeja to be caught at slip and Crawley spooned a drive to mid off. At 60-3, the momentum had shifted.

Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, with superior techniques than other England players, countered with even more attacking cricket. They quickly put together 61 runs before Bairstow (37 off 58 balls) was bowled neck and crop while defending to the third of India's spin trio – Axar Patel.

Root is the most accomplished batsman in the England team, but also guilty of playing the riskiest shots. One such sweep off Jadeja was easily pouched at short fine leg for 29 as England lost half their side for 125.

From there, the visitors could have easily been bowled out for 150. But the architect of England's new approach to Test cricket was still batting. Stokes only needed one batsman to stay at the other end so that he could open his