Bumrah and Root show their class on bizarre Bazwalling day

This Test is being played more on an upside-down ground than merely a sloped one. England are winning the toss and batting at home for only the second time since the start of 2022. Jasprit Bumrah's deliveries aren't carrying to the wicketkeeper. Nitish Kumar Reddy's are surprising everyone with the extra bounce. Reddy is India's highest wicket-taker. England are playing according to the conditions and bowling, and are Bazwalling at 3.02 an over.

For a moment, it seemed the gods sent locusts out 20 minutes after the scheduled close of play to deliver judgment on what could be seen as an immoral day's play in times of moral victories. Thankfully, they were just black ants, arguably the most threatening form of non-human life in England. Some argued they were ladybugs.

Whoever they were, hopefully they stayed back to watch two masters at work. Also, the complaints about the ball and the eventual change around the 42nd-43rd over lent bits of normalcy to proceedings. It was only the last bits of it, but Bumrah and Joe Root were masterly on a pitch that had enough to keep them interested, but not enough to give maximum results for their efforts.

Curiously, Root faced just 21 balls from Bumrah. That's just 21 out of 72 that Bumrah bowled with Root at the wicket. It included Root facing just one ball from Bumrah's first spell after lunch. Only Washington Sundar bowled less often to him.

If it was a conscious thing that Root did, it is another masterful thing for a master batter to do, letting the poor Ollie Pope face the brunt of a red-hot Bumrah. During that ten-over period, Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj gave away just 15 runs. All told, Root faced just 24 balls in those ten overs. Pope later said it wouldn't be so smart if it were a conscious move. Ollie, Joe did you in there.

Through the day, Bumrah drew 34 false shots. That's about two per over. That deserves more than one wicket, but the Pavilion End, the one that alpha bowlers of every team take at Lord's, hardly had any bounce. The first ball he bowled to Ben Duckett took the edge but didn't carry to slip. Immediately, he asked everyone behind the wicket to move up. He bowled just four overs in that spell, and moved to the Nursery End, which had more bounce.

Through the day, there was more swing and seam available than on any of the first days of the three Tests so far, but the lack of pace and bounce made it hard work to take wickets. The lack of pace gave batters time to adjust to the movement, and if they did edge them, they hardly ever carried. Except, of course, when Reddy bowled great balls of fire.

It also took away one of the more profitable scoring avenues for Root: the dab behind square on the off side. He kept middling those dabs, but they just didn't have enough pace on them to go past gully. That showed in his strike rate, and in the number of inside edges that missed the stumps. That's the little luck you deserve as a Test batter when you are batting at 86% control on a pitch doing a bit.

Bumrah tried both ends but had little luck even though he, and India, struck to good lengths and kept testing the batters. Movement in the pitch notwithstanding, India's fast bowlers remained on the good length 54% of the time as opposed to England's 37% on the first day in Leeds and Birmingham. That has been the general trend in the series. India will have reason to feel good about their work, having kept England down to 251 on a day only four wickets came about.

After tea, Bumrah went back to the Pavilion End, where by now the length to hit the top of stumps had shortened by a metre as compared to the first session. If Ben Stokes felt Birmingham was subcontinent-like, this was subcontinent-like with seam. Just what Bumrah needed then to bowl the ball of the day: one that swung away 2.5 inches and then nipped back in about six inches to hit the top of Harry Brook's off stump.

Root kept doing his work like a busy bee at the other end. Against Bumrah, even he played six false shots in 21 balls. Against others, he accumulated in peace, even though it never looked as easy as milking them.

If Root had an asterisk of struggling against Bumrah, India had an asterisk of not hitting the stumps enough. But they did improve as the day progressed: 5.33% in the first session to 10.6% in the second to 15.79% in the third.

It was the best first day of the series, even though it was the slowest. There were no clear winners or losers, both sides could be pleased with their work with room for improvement still, and there was a promise of more to come should the pitch deteriorate in the 28-degree heat that is making everything fall apart in England. Of course, the flying ants saw only bits of it.