Moeen Ali marked his test recall by dismissing India captain Virat Kohli for a duck as England reduced the hosts to 106-3 at lunch on the opening day of the second match on Saturday.
India, after winning the toss and electing to bat, lost opener Shubman Gill early on, also for nought, but Rohit Sharma’s 85-run partnership with Cheteshwar Pujara steadied their innings.
However, England reclaimed control when Pujara and Kohli fell in successive overs on a spin-friendly track at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Rohit was batting on 80 off 78 balls, with Ajinkya Rahane on five at the other end with a rebuilding job ahead of the Mumbai duo.
Olly Stone, picked ahead of Chris Woakes, earlier trapped Gill lbw with his third delivery to give England the perfect start.
After the opening test was played behind closed doors, the familiar noise from the gallery was heard again as 15,000 fans were allowed back in the stadium.
Rohit gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about with his flowing drives, reaching the 50-mark in 47 balls.
The opener pulled Ben Stokes for a six and smashed 13 boundaries in his free-flowing knock.
Pujara made 21 before falling to left-arm spinner Jack Leach, and in the next over Moeen spun one through Kohli’s defence to bowl him out.
Beaten by 227 runs in the first match of the four-test series, India dropped Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Nadeem, while resting Jasprit Bumrah for the match.
All-rounder Axar Patel will make his test debut while left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav and quick Mohammed Siraj were recalled.
A combination of injury, poor form and their policy of resting key players prompted England to make four changes.
Wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, seamer Stuart Broad, spin all-rounder Moeen and quick Stone were drafted in to replace Jos Buttler, James Anderson, Dom Bess and the injured Jofra Archer.
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