England fold to hand India initiative in first Test after Joe Root's soft dismissal

England 285-9: It remains to be seen whether the first Test match between England and India will be defined by the 18 mad minutes on the opening day

Joe Root was run out on 80 runs (Getty Images)

Test matches, by and large, are won in the boring bits. Occasionally you see a team tearing it up from start to finish, or the brilliant spell or innings that flips a game on its head. But for the most part, victories in the oldest format of the game are wrung, not snatched; earned, not plundered. Line and length isn’t sexy. Nor is batting for six hours. You can’t cut composure or concentration or persistence into a YouTube highlights package, although you’d love to see someone try (“All 237 Of Allan Border’s Leaves In The Second Test v New Zealand At Adelaide! [HD] [I DO NOT OWN THIS CONTENT – NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED]”).

It remains to be seen whether the first Test match between England and India will be defined by the 18 mad minutes on the opening day in which England went from 216-3 to 224-6, squandering an ascendancy they had spent almost five hours patiently accumulating. But even if their bowlers do haul themselves back into the game on Thursday, the opening day of this Test series was a reminder that the flaws in England’s cricketing character are deep, insoluble and exposed.

You’d call it a collapse, but it wasn’t even as spectacular as that. England’s prized middle-order, boasting a combined 13,000 Test runs and with an IPL street value of several million, simply gave up like a weak bladder, leaking precious wickets all over the carpet. Six wickets fell in the final session put the world’s No1 Test team in charge on a wicket with few sprites and precious little pace, on a day of glorious Midlands sunshine.

It wasn’t magic, or happenstance, or a fit of pique. It was a basic lack of patience, an essential skittishness, the elementary lapses of a team that has more or less forgotten how to play out the boring bits, that has become fixated on making something happen, even if that thing is its own implosion. The senseless run-out of Joe Root shortly before 5pm set off a chain reaction that would chase England’s harried lower order all the way to stumps.

Of course, a score of 285 is no disaster, especially if Sam Curran and James Anderson can carve out a few more on the second morning. The lush outfield, irrigated by 46,000 litres of water by Warwickshire’s industrious groundstaff in the build-up to the Test, helps to keep the Duke ball shiny, and India’s seamers were still finding conventional swing well into the afternoon. There will be good turn for Adil Rashid on his home Test debut, if Ravi Ashwin’s pearl to dismiss Alastair Cook is anything to go by. But the suspicion remains that with India about to enjoy the best of the batting conditions, England will be at least 100 runs short of par.

You only had to watch the first two sessions. India bowled with discipline and hunger, and yet reaped very little. Ashwin, introduced after just six overs, drew first blood after 40 minutes, extracting Cook with the sort of ball you bowl in your dreams, subtly tilting the seam towards slip and ripping it from the line of leg stump to the top of off. That aside, though, there were few alarms for England. They lunched at 83-1, which astonishingly was their best start to a series with the bat since 2010.

Mohammed Shami, right, dismissed Keaton Jennings (AFP/Getty Images)

Keaton Jennings had survived being dropped by Ajinkya Rahane on 9, but on the verge of a half-century, he was dislodged by a pigeon. It perched at short mid-on at the start of a Mohammed Shami over, resisting Root’s attempts to shoo it away. The very next ball, suitably distracted, Jennings played on as the pigeon impassively stood watch. For India, who had looked rather flat at the start of the second session, it was – and apologies in advance for this – something of a coup.

Dawid Malan, a batsman with a strong claim to be England’s least impressive No4 in recent history, fell to Shami for 8. But now England rallied. Jonny Bairstow got off to his customary brisk start. Root passed 50, as well as 6,000 Test runs in his career: the fastest Englishman to the landmark, in a shade under six years. The century partnership came up in 137 balls, and the most remarkable thing was that it had seemed almost sleepy in its tone.

All England needed to do was to keep batting. Instead came the moment that may well define the series just as the run-out of James Vince burned its way through the 2017-18 Ashes. Bairstow called Root through for a second run to mid-wicket, taking on Virat Kohli’s arm. Kohli, a man who makes no distinction between a challenge and an affront, gathered and turned and threw and hit in one fluid action, like one of those fancy kitchen gadgets you buy in Robert Dyas. Root was out without recourse to the third umpire.

Jos Buttler was bowled lbw by Ravichandran Ashwin (Action Images)

At the other end, Bairstow leaned solemnly on his bat. Root departed in a foul temper, looking like a man who had just failed to convince a nightclub bouncer of his firmly-put argument that Converse are actually distinct from trainers. An ecstatic Kohli gave Root the full send-off, mocking his mic-drop celebration from the recent one-day series. Individually and collectively, India seemed immediately to recognise the moment as the immense gift it was.

Minutes later, Bairstow chopped on to Umesh Yadav. Jos Buttler was LBW second ball to Ashwin, just for the banter. At 4.43pm, England would have envisioned a total in excess of 400. As the Edgbaston clock struck five, they were now staring 250 in the face. England had lost their heads, and now India were into the tail.

And indeed, it could have been worse for England. Ben Stokes (21) and Rashid (13) resisted for an hour between them, only to succumb just as they were beginning to get set. Curran remained unbeaten on 24, largely resisting the urge to tee off, leaving the ball well and seeing England through to stumps despite being dropped by Dinesh Karthik in the last over of the day. After all, Test victories are earned not plundered, and after a day of flux and frustration, England will certainly need to earn this one.