Fourth Test: England end first day at 288/5

Keaton Jennings overcame two false starts on his first day of Test cricket before finishing with a priceless debut century for England.

England’s opening pair were putting into action coach Trevor Bayliss” instruction to return to batting with “intent’, as in last month’s drawn opener in Rajkot.

However, it wasn’t a bad outing for the visitors, whose total of 400 is almost 80 runs more than the average first innings score at the venue.

Jennings was unbeaten on 65 at the crease with Joe Root not out on five at the other end.

Cook was out stumped – only the fourth time in his test career – off Ravindra Jadeja (1-60) just before lunch.

Moeen Ali and Jennings shared a 94-run stand for the third wicket to keep India frustrated until the man with the golden arm turned it around in the final session.

Cook sounded pleased to have returned to a venue where England had tasted success in the past – in 2006 and 2012.

Moeen (50) was guilty of giving his wicket away again shortly after bring up his fifty, he played a loose shot to gift Ashwin another wicket.

Umpire Paul Reiffel, meanwhile, had to leave the field during the afternoon session after being felled by a blow to the back of the head at square-leg from a lobbed outfield throw. TV umpire Marais Erasmus substituted for the rest of the day while India’s Chettithody Shamshuddin took his place in front of the TV monitors.

Jennings kept his cool and reached his maiden hundred by reverse sweeping Jayant for a four.

Jennings, who had forced his way into the squad on the strength of scoring over 1500 runs in domestic cricket, was lucky on two occasions within the first half hour, when he could have been dismissed.

Jennings’ second anxious moment came in the middle when, still without a run to his name off 10 balls, he looped a catch to gully off Umesh Yadav – and could only watch helplessly as Karun Nair failed to hold on diving high to his left. He was dropped when he was yet to open his account in the debut Test and then capitalised on the “life” given to him. After bundling out England for 400 in the first innings, India managed to reach 62/1 at tea.

Jennings continued to impress even after the departure of Cook, hitting 12 crisp boundaries.

Asked what did captain and fellow-opener Alastair Cook tell him before he faced top-ranked spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, Jennings said: “He was trying to give me a feel of what he went through facing him before”.

Cook revealed that newcomer Keaton Jennings, who has replaced injured Hameed, would be making his debut on Thursday.