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Summer started on a heavy, hot day in Leeds on Friday. It started with the morning sun glinting off the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and cricket supporters striding happily along the towpath through its Victoriana, past Granary Wharf and Monk Bridge Viaduct, towards the cathedral of Headingley, on the hill.
It started with a bacon and sausage butty from Ugly Mugs Cafe on St Michael’s Lane, opposite the ground, already busy more than two hours before the first ball of this Test summer was bowled, the summer that is a prelude to an Ashes winter in Australia, the summer when Bazball is being told to grow up or go home.
Ugly Mugs is David Lloyd’s pre-match eatery of choice and there is an item called Rob Burrow’s Number 7 on the menu, in honour of one of Leeds’ favourite sons. It is a place to watch the cricket walk by.
‘You just missed Harry Brook,’ one of the customers said to no one in particular, as he peered over the mountain of his full English from one of the outside tables. Queues had already started to form outside the gates.
Signs pointed us to summer, too. They pointed to familiar, comforting names such as the Kirkstall Lane End. Inside, the great expanse of the Western Terrace lay empty and expectant and daunting, ready for its bacchanal.
The nets were up on the outfield and there was the smack of ball on bat, and the buzz of broadcasters doing pieces to camera. Ben Stokes was on the front cover of the programme, with his collar turned up, and on the desks in the press room there were pieces of loaf cake from Bettys in Harrogate that had been ‘steeped’ in Yorkshire Tea.
Headingley was a wonderful day out on Friday - even if it left England with a lot of work to do
The ground was buzzing with excitement and the morning sun was glinting on the way
Ben Stokes opted to bowl and the anticipation among fans at Headingley only increased
And Bumble was here now and Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain, broadcasters who have done so much to illustrate their game with colour and life and beauty and complexity. On the field, Stokes won the toss and said, ‘We’ll have a bowl’, and the hum grew a little louder.
Some looked up at the sky and saw it was blue and wondered at the wisdom of the decision.
Others pointed out that the previous six Tests on this ground had all been won by the team bowling first.
Music from a DJ booth called Punjabi Roots drifted over the ground. Yashasvi Jaiswal pushed the first ball of the day from Chris Woakes judiciously away, left the next four and then guided the final delivery through gully to the third man boundary for four.
It was the start of a day of elegance and admiration. Jaiswal was a joy to watch. He gave a first hint of what was to come with a sumptuous drive through mid-off from the penultimate ball of Woakes’s second over.
Soon after, he carved Brydon Carse like a dish fit for the gods, viciously through point to the boundary. Soon, it started to feel as if maybe India were not going to miss Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma quite as much as everyone had thought.
Jaiswal and KL Rahul drove and cut with majesty. Stokes offered some resistance, as Stokes always does. England’s captain is never less than a force of nature and he removed India’s debutant, Sai Sudharsan, for a duck with the last ball before lunch.
It was only a brief reprieve. By mid-afternoon, as India began to accelerate away from their hosts, Stokes’s decision to put them in started to excite comparisons with Hussain’s decision to bowl against Australia at the Gabba in 2002. That didn’t end well. On the evidence of the first day, at least, neither will this.
India seized their chance and dazzled with 359-3, with Shubman Gill excelling on his first outing as captain
Stokes celebrates after seeing off debutant Sai Sudharsan - but India were too much to contain
And the fans gave him great support when he eventually bowled out Jaiswal for 101
But this is only the opening skirmish. Just the first day of summer. England were strong favourites to win this series before the start, so this was just the start this five-Test challenge needed. The first signs are that it will be a battle royal.
The crowd seemed to recognise that, too. When Jaiswal was finally dismissed for 101, clean bowled by Stokes, after tea, the crowd crammed on to the Western Terrace — even those involved in the patient building of a gargantuan beer snake — stood to applaud him as he headed back towards the pavilion.
That kind of generosity is not uncommon in cricket but after another season of football’s endless toxicity and relentless tribalism, it still felt like a cool breeze in the stifling heat of the afternoon. It was not England’s day but it was impossible not to appreciate the feast India were serving up.
Nor did they relent. Shubman Gill, who some had expected to wilt under the pressure of being the new India captain, ended the day unbeaten on 127. He brought up his century with a stunning cover drive off the bowling of Josh Tongue.
This was the perfect antidote to football's tribalism, writes Oliver Holt
It was a sobering day for England’s bowlers. Their attack looked light and ineffectual. Maybe Jofra Archer will be back for the second Test at Edgbaston. England need him. Mark Wood is sorely missed, too. His return will take longer.
There was no flurry of wickets before stumps. Rishabh Pant took his turn to cut loose. He clubbed his second ball of the day back over Stokes’s head for four. Stokes grinned broadly. Game recognised game.
In the final overs, Pant hoiked a six high over the midwicket boundary off the bowling of Woakes, as India raced towards 359 for three at the close.
Woakes tried to laugh, too, but he could not quite do it.
