India v England: Joe Root and Moeen Ali star in Rajkot

Joe Root made his 11th Test century and first in Asia

Joe Root hit a century and Moeen Ali an unbeaten 99 as England made a strong start on the first day of the first Test against India in Rajkot.

Root made 124 and shared a stand of 179 with Moeen to take England to 311-4 at the beginning of the five-Test series.

England were earlier 102-3 - debutant Haseeb Hameed making 31 - after winning the toss on a surface that showed little turn and some low bounce.

India, meanwhile, dropped three catches in the first half an hour of the day.

Taken in isolation, they were not too costly for the hosts, but they set the tone for an opening day that could not have gone much better for heavy underdogs England.

After failing to impress in the 1-1 drawn series in Bangladesh, this was a vastly improved batting display by the tourists, albeit after the top order was again knocked over relatively cheaply.

India have not lost a home Test match since England won 2-1 here in 2012 and while the world number ones had the disadvantage of losing the toss in conditions largely suited to batting, their bowling lacked incision and the fielding was poor.

Moeen Ali becomes the 15th man to end a Test day 99 not out, all of the previous 14 have gone on to make a century

Root and Moeen rebuild...

Still, there was a sense of familiarity as England, so often blighted by problems at the top of the batting line-up, lost three wickets for 55 runs before lunch.

Alastair Cook had been dropped twice and Hameed once, all off edges, before Cook was given lbw off left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, not reviewing when replays showed the ball was drifting down the leg side.

Hameed, at 19 only the second teenager to debut for England since 1949, looked organised and composed before being pinned lbw by off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who then had Ben Duckett caught at slip.

But, with England teetering, Root and Moeen combined to bat through the afternoon session, manoeuvring the ball in chanceless fashion and rotating the strike with well-judged running between the wickets.

Haseeb Hameed scored 13 runs from his first nine balls, but went 25 without scoring before being dismissed

...and then cash in

Root was busily accumulating as soon as he arrived at the crease, cover driving, sweeping and working singles on the leg side.

His 11th Test century and first in Asia was brought up with a delicate sweep off Ashwin and, though the celebrations were muted, he soon launched Jadeja back over his head for six.

Left-hander Moeen, eager to use his feet, regularly hit the spinners aerially though mid-on and flashed the pace bowlers square of the wicket on the off side.

Such was their dominance, it was a surprise when Root offered a return catch to Umesh Yadav, a dismissal tinged with controversy after Yadav was adjudged to have control of the ball despite fumbling and dropping as he threw it in celebration.

Still, Moeen remained in the company of Ben Stokes, but must wait for the one run that will give him a fourth Test century and first outside England.

In Joe Root's wagon wheel, the yellow lines show the fours driven to the cover boundary and swept on the leg side. The one red line is a six straight down the ground.

England puncture India's invincibility?

Since England's victory four years ago, India have won 12 of their 13 home Tests, with the 13th only drawn because of heavy rain.

But here they were not only hampered by England's excellent batting, but also their own shortcomings.

Ajinkya Rahane, captain Virat Kohli and Murali Vijay were all guilty of dropped catches, leg-spinner Amit Mishra served up a diet of full tosses, and Ashwin, the world's number one bowler, cut an increasingly frustrated figure on a day when he conceded more than 100 runs.

To cap India's problems, opening bowler Mohammed Shami struggled with a hamstring problem.

On a tour when some predicted anything other than a 5-0 defeat would be a good result for England, it is they who have made the stronger start.

Analysis

Former England opener Geoffrey Boycott

It wasn't a great start but it was a great finish and that's what matters. They can sleep well tonight. Now they see that these India players aren't super men, they'll get lots of confidence from this.

BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew

I like this pitch, it's been excellent on the first day - it's not been like the type of pitch we worried about. Moeen is closing in on what would be a very good hundred. This has been as good as I've seen him bat.

'A lot of hard work still to do'

England centurion Joe Root told BBC Sport: "It's a good start to the game but it'd be silly and naive to look too far into it.

"There is a lot of hard work to do tomorrow morning but it's nice to see Moeen set and Stokesy looked very comfortable towards the back end of the evening. If they can get a good partnership together and put some pressure on them, we could be in a really good position come the end of this innings.

"I thought Moeen played very well with the bat in Bangladesh in extreme conditions and to see him to go on here and make a big contribution is really pleasing. I'm sure that will give him a lot of confidence going into the rest of this trip."

Stats of the day

• Joe Root has become only the second overseas batsman after Michael Clarke to score a Test century in India since the end of 2012. India have scored 15 hundreds in that time.

• Root has played seven Tests against India and has got a fifty in all seven of them.

• Root is the second player in the world to pass 1,000 Test runs in 2016, behind Jonny Bairstow.

• At 19 years and 297 days, Haseeb Hameed is the fifth-youngest player for England and the second youngest to open, the youngest being Jack Crawford in 1906.

• Stuart Broad has become the 14th player to win 100 Test caps for England.

• The last time there was a five-match Test series in India was in 1986-87 against Pakistan.