India Vs England : Keaton Jennings refuse to blame pigeon for dismissal

England opener Keaton Jennings has refused to blame a pigeon for his unlucky dismissal on the opening of the first test against India. The play was momentarily paused with Jennings and Joe Root at the crease while the players tried to shoo away the stubborn bird from the middle of the field.

With Alastair Cook falling cheaply, Jennings put on 72 runs with Root but fell after lunch when he was distracted by a pigeon on the adjacent pitch one ball earlier. "I obviously made an error, misjudged the ball, and it ended up in my stumps, and that's the way it is. I don't blame the pigeon at all," he quipped.

"Thirty overs before, people were standing up behind the bowler's arm, you could say that distracted me as well. You re-focus, go through your own method, your own process between each ball. "I wouldn't say it distracted me at all. It just happens to be the ball before I got out, and suddenly there's a huge hoo-hah about the pigeon," he laughed it off.

Ashwin took charge of the day's proceedings for India. While Jennings praised the spinner, he couldn't commit whether both teams were wrong in going with only one spinner in their line-ups. England reached stumps on 285-9, having been 216-3 before Root (80)was run out by Virat Kohli to prompt a collapse. ( With input from agencies )