BIRMINGHAM: England made a solid start on day one of the first test against India as they reached 83 for one at lunch on Wednesday.

In the host country's 1,000th test match, opener Keaton Jennings was dropped on nine but moved to 38 while skipper Joe Root looked fluent on his way to 31.

India's seam attack struggled to extract much help from the pitch and the visitors' one success was a ripper from off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin that removed Alastair Cook for 13.

The 33-year-old had struck two handsome boundaries off Umesh Radav but in Ashwin's second over he played forward to a ball that drifted in towards middle stump before straightening past Cook's outside edge and clattering off stump.

Jennings got lucky in the sixth over of the day when he was squared up by a good length ball by Ishant Sharma and it flew off his outside edge but Ajinkya Rahane could not cling on to the catch at fourth slip.

After Cook's dismissal there were few alarms for the England batsmen although Mohammed Shami continued to look dangerous for India -- beating Jennings with a beauty in the 21st over.

Root looked imperious, though, and punished any bad balls with four boundaries coming off his bat before lunch in a 57-run partnership with Jennings.

England included Yorkshire spinner Adil Rashid in their team to face the world's number one test nation but there was no place for Moeen Ali.