Spinner Axar Patel claimed a career-best 6-38 as India bundled out England for 112 to put themselves in the driving seat in the day-night third Test in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
Rohit Sharma then helped the hosts weather a top-order wobble of their own by reaching his half century and finish an eventful 13-wicket opening day on 99-3 at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Rohit was batting on 57 at stumps with Ajinkya Rahane on one at the other end with India eyeing a handy first-innings lead.
Earlier, Joe Root's decision to bat backfired as the tourists folded in 48.4 overs inside two seasons despite Zak Crawley's stroke-filled 53.
On a track where the ball spun from the first session, the English batsmen repeatedly played for the turn and got beaten by the straight ball instead.
They made four changes to their playing XI but their rejigged top order let them down.
Playing his 100th test, seamer Ishant Sharma dismissed Dom Sibley in the third over before the spinners took over.
Left-arm spinner Patel trapped Jonny Bairstow lbw for nought with his first delivery.
At the other end, Crawley appeared to bat on a different pitch, dealing mostly in boundaries and bringing up his fifty off 68 balls.
Before his partnership with Root could really flourish, Ravichandran Ashwin (3-26) intervened.
The wily off-spinner dismissed Root lbw for 17. The England captain reviewed the decision but could not get it overturned.
Patel ended Crawley's knock in similar fashion to trigger a batting collapse and England lost their last eight wickets for 38 runs.
"Tough day," admitted Crawley afterwards. "We're a little bit behind in the game but a good day tomorrow will put a lot of things right.
"It was a nice pitch to bat on against the seamers early. All of a sudden it changed quite drastically. Definitely two-paced.
"The way the pitch was behaving, if we bowl them out and get any sort of lead, we've got a good chance. Fourth innings, you could bowl someone out very cheaply."
It was a sense of deja vu for England who were dismissed for 58 in their previous pink-ball test in New Zealand three years ago.
India did not find scoring easy either against the swinging pink ball in the final session.
The usually fluent Shubman Gill took 27 balls to open his account while Rohit mixed caution with occasional aggression in his unbeaten fifty.
Jofra Archer dismissed Gill for 11 and Jack Leach removed Cheteshwar Pujara for a duck but Rohit's 64-run partnership with Virat Kohli helped India maintain their upper hand in the contest.
Ollie Pope dropped Kohli at gully but Leach dismissed him when the India captain chopped a delivery onto his stumps to depart for 27 in the final over.
Around 40,000 fans thronged the world's largest cricket stadium which was named after India Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier on Wednesday.
