Jasprit Bumrah stretched his arms out, turned to Ben Stokes on his follow-through, shared a laugh and almost whispered, "there was not much you could do about it, Stokesy."

The England captain had stood alone on the burning deck, flaying and smashing everything the Indian spinners threw at him until a Bumrah special ended his innings of 70 off 88 balls. Stokes tried to give himself some room to pick the gap over cover, but it seamed against the angle from around the wicket.

The ball hit the top of the middle stump, leaving Stokes to only nod in appreciation before throwing his head back in anguish. England had huffed and puffed to 246 in 64.3 overs after deciding to bat on a wicket which turned and bounced but wasn't as threatening as the ones used during the Australia series. So, did Bazball pass the crucial test of survival on Indian wickets on the opening day of the series?

England’s Bazballers tried to throw caution to the winds sporadically, but their intrepid ways often led to their dismissal. It needed a show of sanity and caution from Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow to restore some order after losing three wickets in 21 balls once Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja came on.

Stokes showed the virtues of sensible batting on turning wickets with measured aggression. The last 53 of his runs came from 36 deliveries before he ran out of partners.

Yashasvi Jaiswal came up with a much more dramatic intent to nullify any threat the English attack might have harboured. First ball of the innings — whipped over square leg for a boundary; first ball of spin — welcomed Tom Hartley into Test cricket with a six over wide long-on. This was followed by another six off the penultimate delivery off Hartley's first over. The Indians lived up to the challenge as Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma raced to 80 off 74 balls before a moment of impetuosity led to the captain's dismissal.

The left-handed Indian opener reached his half-century off 47 balls and remained unbeaten on 76 while providing adequate entertainment to the 23,000-odd gathering. It was mainly because of Jaiswal that India brought the deficit down to 127 runs by the close.

Hartley, who shared the new ball with Mark Wood, struggled for control conceding 51 from his first five overs. Jaiswal took his chances against the two left-arm spinners before launching onto leggie Rehan Ahmed.

What should also be of concern to the visitors is that they have lost all their three reviews and will have to rely on the on-field umpires' judgement on close calls for most of the second day.

There was no end to England's woes. Their batters seemed burdened with the thought of playing on turners. The moment they sensed a hint of tweak and bounce, they tried to hit their way out of trouble which will never work on such surfaces.

“Obviously, you want to make a few more but on that pitch, it was quite tricky. There was consistent spin throughout the day," opener Ben Duckett said.

But will the events of the opening day force England to retract from their Bazball philosophy and force them to exhibit caution? It's early days but Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum are utterly committed to their new plan of attack.

The think-tank are in mood to contradict their own strategy. If you are ready to ignore the possible consequences of failure, it wouldn't be fair to turn back in the middle of the biggest series of all.