Jennings a bigger deal this time
LOOKING GOOD: Jennings drives to the boundary THERE have been 2,171 days, 74 Tests and 12 opening partners for Alastair Cook since the retirement of Andrew Strauss in 2012.
Yet in Keaton Jennings, England might just have found the answer to a question that has been giving the selectors sleepless nights for almost six years.
Jennings was ultimately undone on day one of this first Test by a damp squib of a dismissal that saw a delivery from India’s Mohammed Shami hit his knee and trickle onto the stumps.
It came moments after Jennings had been distracted by a pigeon that stopped play as it wandered onto the square.
It proved a slightly farcical end to an innings that promised much. And while his grand total of 42 runs during a 98-ball knock that also saw him dropped on nine will not grab many headlines, Jennings looked the real deal as a Test match opener.
It is less than a year since the 26-year-old’s first stint at this level ended in ignominy following a series against South Africa in which his technical deficiencies were brutally exposed by Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel.
Since returning for the final Test against Pakistan at Headingley in June, Jennings looks far more relaxed.
Gone is the static, motionless player who froze last summer.
In his place was a far more positive figure whose feet are moving and face smiling as he looks to meet the challenge of the world’s No1 Test team head on.
Jennings had started well when he scored a debut century at Mumbai in December 2016. Things quickly unravelled and he was forced to go through a lot of soul-searching after he was dropped last year.
A trip back to the family home in South Africa got him back on track. Jennings spent much of his time with his father Ray, the former South Africa coach, and uncle Ken, a sports psychologist.
A move from Durham, where he had spent his formative years in English cricket, to Lancashire has also given him a new lease of life.
Before this series began, Jennings admitted he needed the kick up the backside that being dropped gave him.
“It made me turn my life around, have a good look at myself and my values, the way I want to do things,” he said.
“You walk out of a four-match series battered and bruised and questioning yourself. It was tough.
“That’s why I’ve decided now I want to enjoy it, rather than put pressure on myself.
“The danger is that you’re so busy worrying about performing you don’t relish it.”
Jennings will need a big score sooner rather than later if England are to be convinced he is the answer they have been craving for.
But he looks far better equipped to deliver now than he did last summer.
I decided simply to enjoy it