Axar Patel's face lit up with impish glee as he let out a roar, punched his clenched fist into the air before being joined in by teammates.

Jonny Bairstow struggled to get his outstretched front foot up before shaking his head and walking off in complete disbelief. The England batter had looked in control as Axar delivered it from wide of the crease.

It landed on a length where Bairstow could neither drive nor go back or nudge it into the gap. He had to defend it in front of his body. The ball pitched on the middle stump, broke past the outside edge and hit the top of his off stump.

A dream ball which broke his fledgling partnership with Joe Root. Axar's line was too wide at the start, but after lunch he got back his rhythm much to England's consternation.

England were soon reduced to 137/6 before Ben Stokes performed another of his trademark rescue acts in the middle. But the Indian spinners had done enough to instil fear in the minds of the English batters on the opening day of the series.

Axar had returned India's second successful bowler with 27 wickets, after Ravichandran Ashwin, on England's last tour to India in 2021. Perhaps it was his past record which prompted the team management to pick him ahead of the versatile Kuldeep Yadav.

Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley had got the innings off to a strong start with a stand of 55 from 60 balls but things changed dramatically once the spinners came into play.

Duckett had looked in shape but Ashwin trapped him in front with one that skidded past the inside edge.

Ollie Pope was done in by the bounce and turn of Ravindra Jadeja as he edged low to Rohit Sharma at slip. Crawley then drove low to mid-off, where Siraj dived in front.

England had lost three wickets in 21 runs and the balance had shifted. The Indian spinners forced the batters to defend in front. Having done their homework, they managed to block the reverse sweep and the sweep.

"We had a chat with the captain that they will sweep and reverse sweep. We saw where the reverse sweep was going and we pulled the point fielder a bit backwards," Axar explained at the end of the day. "We had a plan for this."

Root succumbed to such a strategy. He had been sweeping anything outside off. He was finally undone by a Jadeja delivery which was short and bounced. He tried to sweep but top-edged it to short fine leg.

But it was the Bairstow dismissal which capped off the day for India's spinning trio.

"That delivery really came off well," Axar said. "The way Bairstow took a stance on the fourth wicket to avoid the leg before prompted me to bowl at the stumps... That was the plan and the one that turned from there was good... you could have sensed it from my celebration."

England will have to watch out, or else court disaster.