India v England: Joe Root century leads England fightback on Day 1 of fourth Test after Akash Deep shines on debut

Joe Root scored a magnificent century to lead England’s fightback on a tricky pitch on the first day of the fourth Test against India, ending on 106 as England finished on 302-7.

England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and batted on a pitch at Ranchi that was expected to deteriorate as the game went along, but it was lively straight from the off.

Mohammed Siraj, the senior seamer with Jasprit Bumrah rested, struggled to find his line early on and he was upstaged by debutant Akash Deep.

The 27-year-old thought he had struck in just his fourth over when he beat Zak Crawley's edge to hit off-stump, only for it to be called back for a front foot no ball.

However the breakthrough did come a few overs later when another fine delivery took the edge of Ben Duckett.

England vice-captain Ollie Pope lasted just two balls before he was trapped in front in the same over.

The next over Deep struck again, uprooting Crawley’s stumps legally this time as he departed for a well-made 42.

Jonny Bairstow put together a partnership with Root but he too vanished, this time LBW off the bowling of Ravichandran Ashwin.

His spin partner Ravindra Jadeja then trapped Stokes plumb with a ball that kept very low, giving the England captain no chance at all as India had England on the ropes.

Once again though, Root found a partner in wicket-keeper Ben Foakes and together they batted through the entirety of the second session to wrestle back some control.

After tea, Siraj picked up the wicket of Foakes when the England batter chipped tamely to Jadeja and Ashwin thought he had Tom Hartley LBW soon after but a review showed there was bat involved.

But Hartley didn’t last much longer as Siraj started to find his groove, a beautiful ball came back in a fraction to the left-hander, before beating the outside edge and hitting the top of off stump to leave England seven down.

Ollie Robinson came in to try and see Root through to his century and a few times both batters had moments of tight calls when India thought they had them out, only for the umpires to turn them down. This increased India's frustration as earlier they had wasted a review on Foakes that was nowhere near hitting, giving them no chance of challenging the umpires' calls.

And as the day drew to a close Root eased a ball to the boundary with a glorious cover drive that saw him reach his 31st Test century, leading to intense celebrations from Stokes especially in the dressing room.

Root finished the day on 106 with Robinson unbeaten alongside him on 31, whilst for India Deep had the best figures of the day with 3-70.

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