Singh ripped out England's middle order

The collapse was sparked by the removal of Hussain, who had held England's innings together with a superb 85 before he popped up a bat-pad catch to VVS Laxman off the bowling of Anil Kumble.

Singh then got in on the act after tea by removing Mark Ramprakash, Andrew Flintoff and James Foster in quick succession and Kumble followed up by taking the wicket of Craig White.

Ramprakash fell on 17 when Shiv Sunder Das snapped up a sharp catch at silly point, Flintoff miscued an attempted heave over the top and Foster was given out lbw sweeping.

White then steered a Kumble delivery to Rahul Dravid at first slip after making just five runs.

And Singh wrapped up England's innings in successive balls as Richard Dawson and Matthew Hoggard offered catches to a cordon of close fielders.

England's innings got off to a bad start when Mark Butcher fended a delivery from debutant Tinu Yohannan to VVS Laxman in the slips.

But Hussain and Marcus Trescothick put on 125 for the second wicket as England reached lunch well on top.

Trescothick's stumps go flying

Trescothick had scored 13 fours in his 66 before leaving a full swinging delivery from Yohannan and losing his off-stump just after lunch.

Hussain struggled against Singh and was dropped behind the wicket on 74, but used his feet well to hoist a straight six off the spinner and also struck 13 fours in his innings.

Graham Thorpe put on 43 with his captain and was looking at ease after a nervy start when he prodded his bat at a seaming delivery from Iqbal Siddiqui to divert it to Laxman in the slips.

His demise summed up England's faltering progress as they lost crucial wickets just as they looked to be getting on top with some useful partnerships.

Butcher helped lift England's spirits at the close by bowling Das when the opener shouldered arms to one that nipped back, but India finished the day well on top.

Hussain started the day by losing his 14th consecutive toss as India elected to field.

Wicketkeeper James Foster and off-spinner Richard Dawson were given Test debuts while James Ormond was preferred to Richard Johnson to share the new ball with Matthew Hoggard.

India handed first caps to seam bowlers Sanjay Bangar, Siddiqui and Yohannan.

Teams:

England: M Trescothick, M Butcher, N Hussain, G Thorpe, M Ramprakash, C White, A Flintoff, J Foster, J Ormond, R Dawson, M Hoggard.

India: SS Das, S Bangar, R Dravid, S Tendulkar, S Ganguly, VVS Laxman, D Dasgupta, H Singh, A Kumble, I Siddiqui, T Yohannan