Jennings set to survive... but only by default
It’s not often a test opener can average 19 in a five-match series and finish with his career prospects enhanced. But as Keaton Jennings would probably concede, it has been a strange old summer.
Jennings is one of 12 players tried as Alastair Cook’s opening partner since the retirement of Andrew strauss — and it is his good fortune to be in place at the precise moment Cook has decided to call it a day. the selectors will not want to choose two new openers for the tour of sri Lanka. By default, then, he looks set to survive.
But his latest failure, caught at leg slip off the left-arm spin of Ravindra Jadeja for 23, did not bode well for the winter, when England will be tormented by sri Lanka’s slow bowlers on the most doctored pitches in the world game. Hitting the ball straight to a close fielder will not be a recipe for success. In one sense, he chose a good day to sweep his travails under the carpet, since the Oval had turned its misty eye towards Cook’s farewell.
Jennings began by walking around the outside of India’s guard of honour to allow his partner to soak up the applause, and he might have walked off anonymously, too, only to draw attention to himself with an angry punch of his bat.
the carelessness of his demise will have irked Ed smith and Co. Cook’s departure means they need Jennings to succeed and the memory of his debut century on a turning pitch in Mumbai in 201617 has sustained the notion that he can play spin. One expertly played reverse sweep for four off Jadeja backed it up.
Jennings, though, knows he has to do more than this if he is not to be dropped by England for a second time.
He has a top score of 42 from his eight innings in this series and looks as stiff and awkward as he did against south Africa last summer. In all, he is averaging 22 in tests, which is hardly a peg on which to hang a career.
the recent history of English openers is of a baton passed — from Geoff Boycott to Graham Gooch to Mike Atherton to Marcus trescothick to Andrew strauss to Alastair Cook. But no one has grabbed it from Cook. that means no one can pass it on to whoever replaces him, be it surrey’s Rory Burns or Kent’s Joe Denly.
When England take the field at Galle on November 6, they will do so with one opener fighting to save his career and another just starting out. sri Lanka will not be quaking in their spikes.
More than that, England could well have a No 3 who a week ago was a No 7. Moeen Ali fought gamely for his 50 here, but he could not be accused of fluency. His second-wicket stand of 73 with Cook devoured 40 overs and he played and missed more than 30 times. It got to the point where the bowlers couldn’t even muster a wry smile.
Moeen may yet crack it and England were grateful for his obduracy when Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow both departed for ducks, then Ben stokes for 11. But the Cook fanfare is in danger of obscuring concerns about the top three.
And, as he ground out 70 in time-honoured fashion, it was tempting to wonder whether the solution wasn’t in fact staring England in the face.