England fast bowler Mark Wood took two wickets to rattle India’s top order before the hosts recovered to 93-3 at lunch after electing to bat in the third Test on Thursday.
Captain Rohit Sharma won the toss in Rajkot but Wood had India on the back foot with the wickets of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill.
They then slipped to 33-3 when spinner Tom Hartley removed Rajat Patidar.
Rohit, on 52, led the recovery and made it safely to the interval, putting on an unbroken stand of 60 with Ravindra Jadeja who was 24 not out.
The match is the 100th Test for England captain Ben Stokes, who guided his team to an opening 28-run win in the five-match series, now level at 1-1 after India won the second Test by 106 runs.
Wood came in as the only change for England and had the left-handed Jaiswal caught at slip by Joe Root for 10 in the fourth over.
In the next over he induced another nick from Gill, who was snapped up by wicketkeeper Ben Foakes without scoring.
Spin was introduced after eight overs and Hartley struck with his fifth ball when Patidar chipped to Ben Duckett at cover for five from a ball that gripped and turned.
Rohit then attacked to drag his team back into the session, scoring regular boundaries as he reached his fifty off 71 balls.
The India skipper did survive a chance on 27 when Root dropped a catch in the slips.
In the next over he was given out lbw to James Anderson, who needs five more dismissals to reach 700 Test wickets, but successfully reviewed with replays showing a faint edge.
India handed Test debuts to batsman Sarfaraz Khan and wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel and their batting remains fragile without the experience of Virat Kohli, who is out of the entire series for personal reasons, and KL Rahul who is injured.
