India v England: first Test, day two – live!

93rd over: England 270-3 (Root 131, Stokes 4) A quiet over from Ashwin, one from it.

92nd over: England 269-3 (Root 130, Stokes 4) Root clips Bumrah off the pads for a single. He has already scored more Test runs in 2021 than he did last year, 555 to 464. Stokes hasn’t scored a run this year, and it almost stays that way for another 48 hours when Bumrah sends down a sizzling yorker from round the wicket. Stokes just gets his bat down in time to squeeze it wide of leg stump. That was a stunning delivery. Stokes gets off the mark next ball, guiding a boundary to third man.

91st over: England 264-3 (Root 129, Stokes 0) It’s R Ashwin from the other end. He has a slip and leg gully for Root, who pushes a single into the covers to get off the mark today. Ashwin can be deadly against left-handers so it’s no surprise to see him in the attack so early with Stokes at the crease. Ashwin has dismissed Stokes seven times in Tests, more than any other bowler. Stokes continues his watchful start by defending the last four balls of the over.

90th over: England 263-3 (Root 128, Stokes 0) The new batsman is Ben Stokes, who solidly defends his first delivery and ignores the next two outside off stump.

Jasprit Bumrah will open the bowling. He has three deliveries remaining in his 19th over, having dismissed Dom Sibley with what turned out to be the last ball of the day.

Morning. When Chris Silverwood took over as England coach in 2019, he gave the Test team a simple challenge: to start making big first-innings scores again. Everyone in the media got very excited by England’s change of direction, as if Silverwood had invented penicillin rather than stated an eternal truth of Test cricket.

The important bit was not the message but whether Silverwood could get it across to a batting line-up that had become used to playing limited-overs Test cricket. He did, with almost immediate results. England are once again a grown-up batting team, and they gave another demonstration of their maturity on the first day in Chennai.

They reached 263 for three at the close, with Dom Sibley making 87 and the revitalised Joe Root an unbeaten 128. Both played superbly, and as a result England look in good shape to make 400 in the first innings for the seventh time in 15 Tests under Silverwood. That’s an impressive ratio – but there is one problem. In India, 400 isn’t always worth a damn.

We’ve all been told the scare story of Chennai 2016. England finished the first day on 284 for four, went on to post a big score of 477 – and were thrashed by an innings. A week earlier, they scored exactly 400 in the first innings at Mumbai – and you know the rest. That’s why Root, in his interview last night, spoke of trying to get 600 or even 700. Then, and only then, will they be able to relax in the knowledge that they are immune from defeat.

The first day, good as it was for England, didn’t really tell us anything about where this match is heading. By tonight we should have a much better idea.