India vs England: Dom Sibley offers strong resistance with hard fought fifty

Chennai Test: The England opener mixed caution with textbook stroke play to bring up his fourth Test half-century.

England captain Joe Root won an important toss at Chennai and decided to bat first on a flat and non-responsive pitch at the Chepauk stadium in the first Test against India. His decision was vindicated when the make-shift opening pair of Dom Sibley and Rory Burns put in a 63-run stand to blunt the Indian attack up top.

England opener Dom Sibley in action in 1st Test against India (Twitter/ICC)

But India hit back towards the end of the first session as Ashwin removed Burns for 33 while Jasprit Bumrah picked up the wicket of Dan Lawrence for a duck to leave the visitors at 63/2.

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England needed another strong partnership and it was stitched by Sibley and captain Joe Root. While Root has prior experience of batting and scoring a bagful of runs against India, Sibley was facing the toughest test of his career.

But the tall opener ground his way past some probing bowling by Ashwin, Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem and Washington Sundar to bring up a much deserved half-century, for which he had played 151 deliveries.

Sibley was concentration personified as he put up a show of old fashioned defensive Test batting to reach the fourth half-century of his career.

His confidence grew as he played alongside a busy Joe Root and eventually got some boundaries away against the spinners to give momentum to his innings.

This is Sibley's second consecutive half-century after playing an important hand in the fourth innings of the Galle Test in Sri Lanka last month that ensured a 2-0 series win for his team.

This performance will go a long way in giving him confidence to do well on a tough tour of India.