Hussain, who had elected to bat after winning a rare toss, scored an unbeaten 120 with 20 boundaries in an England total of 257 for four after the home side had lost Michael Vaughan in the second over of the day without a run on the board.
After taking 14 balls to get off the mark, Hussain struck some pugnacious blows to reach his 24th half-century in 73 tests. During a fourth-wicket partnership with John Crawley worth 145 runs he reached his century from 192 balls, striking 17 fours.
It was Hussain’s third century against India, the place of his birth 34 years ago, his fourth as England captain and his second at Lord’s.
Crawley, recalled to the test side after compiling 72 for once out in the opening match of the three-test series against Sri Lanka, stroked an elegant 64 before gifting off-spinner Virender Sehwag his first Test wicket when he guided an innocuous ball to Rahul Dravid at slip.
The tourists, who have not won an overseas series for 16 years, made a promising start with some intelligent and lively pace bowling from left-armer Zaheer Khan from the Pavilion End.
Zaheer, whose first four overs were maidens, trapped Vaughan lbw with his fifth ball of the morning and bowled Graham Thorpe immediately after lunch for four.
In between Mark Butcher (29) helped Hussain add 71 for the second wicket before he was dismissed by leg-spinner Anil Kumble caught at short-leg off bat and pad five minutes before the lunch interval.
The England batsmen struggled against Zaheer and Ashish Nehra and Kumble. But they flourished against Agarkar’s gentle away-swingers while three overs from Ganguly cost 16 runs.
Hussain and Butcher both found scoring difficult in the first hour but the introduction of Agarkar provided immediate relief with Hussain hitting one four over gully followed by a savage square cut to the Tavern boundary.
Butcher kept him company, striking successive fours off Agarkar through the off, before he fell to Kumble.
Thorpe drove his first ball from Kumble for four but was out immediately after the interval without adding to his score when he was bowled by Zaheer.
Crawley edged two fours to the third-man boundary at the expense of Zaheer. He was then quickly into his stride with delightfully wristy drives through the covers off the back-foot and sweetly-timed deflections to leg off the front. He has stroked nine boundaries from 92 balls.
Alec Stewart, playing a record 119th Test for his country, received a standing ovation when he came to the crease.
ENGLAND (1st innings)
M. Butcher c Wasim b Kumble 29
M. Vaughan lbw b Zaheer 0
N. Hussain not out 120
G. Thorpe b Zaheer 4
J. Crawley c Dravid b Sehwag 64
A. Stewart not out 19
EXTRAS (b3, lb10, w1, nb7) 21
TOTAL (4 wkts, 90 overs, 362 mins) 257
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-0, 2-71, 3-78, 4-223
TO BAT: A. Flintoff, C. White, A. Giles, S. Jones, M. Hoggard
BOWLING: Nehra 20-3-48-0 (5nb, 1w); Zaheer 22-7-53-2; Agarkar 12-2-49-0; Kumble 27-8-61-1; Ganguly 3-1-16-0 (1nb); Sehwag 6-0-17-1 (1nb);
INDIA: Virender Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly (capt), Venkatsai Laxman, Ajay Ratra (wkt), Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble, Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan
UMPIRES: Rudi Koertzen (Rsa), Russell Tiffin (Zim)
THIRD UMPIRE: Peter Willey (Eng)
MATCH REFEREE: Mike Procter (Rsa).—Reuters