Cricket-England reel at 81-4 despite Crawley fifty in day-night test

Playing his 100th test, Ishant Sharma had Dom Sibley caught in the slip in the third over and Jonny Bairstow fell for a duck in his first match of the four-test series. India captain Virat Kohli introduced spin as early as in the seventh over and Axar Patel trapped Bairstow lbw with his first delivery.

England's spin frailties were laid bare in the opening session of the third test against India as they slumped to 81-4 despite Zak Crawley's fluent 53 in the day-night contest in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.

With the hard pink-ball in hand, the local spinners generated significant turn to trouble the batsmen with Crawley being the only exception. Ben Stokes was batting on six at tea with Ollie Pope on one at the other end with a big rebuilding job ahead of them in the second session.

England made four changes to their playing XI but the strong start Joe Root wanted after electing to bat did not materialise. Playing his 100th test, Ishant Sharma had Dom Sibley caught in the slip in the third over and Jonny Bairstow fell for a duck in his first match of the four-test series.

India captain Virat Kohli introduced spin as early as in the seventh over and Axar Patel trapped Bairstow lbw with his first delivery. The batsman reviewed the decision but could not get it overturned.

At the other end, Crawley batted as if on a different pitch dealing mostly in sweetly-timed boundaries. Crawley brought up his fifty off 68 balls with his 10th boundary as he and Root, who made 17, began to stitch together a partnership.

Ravichandran Ashwin had other ideas, though, and the off-spinner trapped Root lbw with a fuller delivery. Root reviewed the decision but could not prolong his innings. Patel removed Crawley in similar fashion towards the end of the session to give India an upper hand early in the match at the world's largest cricket stadium.