Battling Moeen soldiers on for England

Moeen Ali led a charmed life to remain unbeaten on 61 and help England to 173-5 at tea after the tourists displayed their discomfort against spin on the opening day of the first test against Bangladesh on Thursday.

The bearded left-hander survived five reviews and featured in two fifty-plus stands, with Joe Root (40) and Jonny Bairstow (26 not out), to rescue the tourists who were reeling at 21-3 after skipper Alastair Cook's decision to bat first.

Moeen hit eight boundaries and a six in his eventful knock, during which he was twice adjudged leg-before in an over to left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan but was reinstated on both occasions after successfully reviewing those decisions.

One of the three Bangladesh players who made their test debuts in the match, off-spinner Mehedi Hasan (3-43) dazzled, joining hands with Shakib to trouble the tourists.

The 18-year-old was pressed early into service after home captain Mushfiqur Rahim decided to introduce spin as early as in the second over.

The spinner claimed his maiden test wicket with a flighted delivery that disturbed fellow test debutant Ben Duckett's (14) stumps.

Mushfiqur opted for spin from both ends and the move paid immediate dividend with Shakib dismissing Cook (four) with his second delivery.

Cook, who became the most-capped England test cricketer in his 134th appearance, went for a sweep only to drag the ball onto his stumps.

Gary Ballance (one) was trapped leg-before by Mehedi after Mushfiqur used a review to successfully overturn the original not out decision.

Moeen did not look comfortable either and was reinstated three times after initially being given out to Shakib.

Root looked the only exception in the English top half, hitting five crisp boundaries in his fluent 40 before Mehedi dismissed him to end a 62-run stand with Moeen.

Shakib dismissed Ben Stokes for 18 with a dipping delivery that turned sharply to breach the batsman's defence and hit the top of the off-stump.