India vs England: Ben Stokes and Co give hosts a reality check as 'Bazball' announces itself in India in style

Ollie Pope was caught by Rohit Sharma at slip off Ravindra Jadeja’s bowling for just 1 after making his way to the crease on Thursday. He would later end up collecting a game-changing 196 on a wicket that wasn’t exactly easy to bat on, taking on the famed Indian spin trio that had made visiting batters dance to their tunes for so many years.

Tom Hartley had been smashed for consecutive sixes by Yashasvi Jaiswal in his first two deliveries on Test debut, and would bleed 63 runs from nine overs at an economy that would somewhat acceptable in the T20 format depending on the situation, but is considered downright criminal in Tests. He would bounce back three days later with a memorable spell of 7/62, running through the Indian batting lineup like a hot knife through butter.

IND vs ENG: Hosts suffer 4th-narrowest loss, Hartley sets new record and more stats from first Test

The story for the Ben Stokes-led England team followed a largely similar script across four days of riveting action at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at the start of the five-Test series. They had been outplayed in the first two days of the match, conceding a massive 190-run first innings lead to the Indians. England were then were facing the prospect of an a defeat, possibly by an innings, inside three days when they were reduced to 163/5 with Ben Stokes getting cleaned up by a beauty from Ravichandran Ashwin.

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