England tour of India, 2021 was started with the first test match on Feb 5, 2021, in MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. The English captain won the toss and made a decision to bat first. Rory Burns and D Sibley started the inning and had made a partnership of 63 runs for the first wicket. R Ashwin took the first breakthrough for India in the 24th over. After the dismissal, Daniel Lawrence came on the crease but could not stay longer and was sent back by Bumrah in the very next over. England lost its 2 wickets quickly at the score of 63 runs but Root and Sibley handled the situation very well and made a partnership of 200 runs for the second wicket. Root showed his brilliance and struck 218 runs in the first innings. Stokes also played well at the number 5 position and contributed 82 runs. Finally, the English team has put a big total of 578 runs on the scoreboard.
Bumrah and Ashwin took 3 wickets each for their team and Ishant, Nadeem got 2 wickets each in the first inning. Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill were sent on the crease but it was not a good start for India and were losing wickets at regular intervals. India had lost 4 wickets at a low score of 71 runs only and came under pressure. On the other hand, Pujara once again performed well and tried to cover up the situation. Pant and Washington Sundar also struck well and tried to bring their team in a good position. After the dismissal of Pujara, the Indian Team could not survive and lost its all wickets at 337 runs. Dom Bess was the most successful bowler for England who took 4 wickets for his team in the first inning. England got the lead of 241 runs.
In the Second Inning of England, Indian bowler Ashwin played a key role and bowled out the opposition team in the low score of 178 runs but England had already got a good lead. Ashwin took 6 important wickets in the second inning and a total of 9 wickets in the match. India got the target of 420 runs to win the match. But that was not going to be an easy task for India.
Once again, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill were sent on the crease to chase the target and Jofra Archer got the new ball. India did not get a good start and lost Rohit Sharma at the score of 25 runs only. After the dismissal, Cheteshwar Pujara came to join Gill but he also could not stay longer and was sent back to the pavilion by Jack Leach. Virat Kohli then with Shubman Gill tried to handle the situation but wickets were falling at regular intervals and two quick wickets of Shubman Gill and Rahane at 92 runs brought the Indian Team under pressure. Virat Kohli tried but could not get enough support from other batsmen and he was also sent back at a total of 179 by Ben Stokes. Finally, the entire team collapsed at the score of 192 runs and lost the match by 227 runs. Shubman Gill scored 50 runs but that was not enough to get the target. England won the first test match of the tournament by 227 runs and led the 4 test matches series by 1-0. Jack Leach took 4 wickets and James Anderson got 3 wickets in the second inning. Joe Root was awarded the Man of the Match for his match-winning inning.