Electing to bat, India were dealt an early blow with Dhawan caught behind off James Anderson for 12 but Vijay (55 not out) and Cheteshwar Pujara (38 not out) steadied the ship with a 73-run unbeaten stand.
England skipper Alastair Cook tried all his top five bowlers in a hope to get some early assistance on an otherwise placid track with easy pace and bounce for the batsman to score off.
Indian captain MS Dhoni, who had no hesitations batting first, was backed by his batsmen on a sunny morning.
The visitors handed a Test debut to all-rounder Stuart Binny, choosing to play five bowlers, and dropping Rohit Sharma to make way for him.
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The Karnataka player follows in his father -- former cricketer and also current selector -- Roger Binny's footsteps and the duo became the tenth father-son pair to represent the country in Test cricket.
England too made one change to their eleven from the loss to Sri Lanka at Headingley, bringing in fit-again all-rounder Ben Stokes in place of Chris Jordan.
The scoring started with a flurry of boundaries, three of them in the first over itself, as Anderson proved costly in his opening spell of the series. It was a change in roles for the two batsmen, as Vijay was the one off to a flier while Dhawan played carefully and looked to make a solid start.