Keaton to keep hitting runs for place in Test
KEATON Jennings knows he has to score runs for Lancashire over the next two months to retain his place in the England Test side.
The Red Rose opener was recalled to the side for last week’s second Test against Pakistan after a run of good form for his new county.
But just because he is in possession of the place, Jennings knows he is not certain to be opening alongside Alastair Cook when the next series against India starts in August.
He will begin his bid to retain his Test spot today as Lancashire resume their Specsavers County Championship campaign against defending champions Essex at Emirates Old Trafford – a match that will see both he and team-mate Haseeb Hameed come up against Cook, a man they have both opened alongside for England in the last 18 months.
“I didn’t expect the England call-up to come so soon, especially with it being in the middle of the series,” Jennings told M.E.N. Sport.
“It is nice to get called up with a weight of runs behind you. The Test environment allows you to doubt yourself pretty quickly and going into it having felt good batting is a massive bonus.
“But at Test level you feel the pinch straight away, after one or two knocks the pressure is on. It is just a matter of how you deal with it. And the best players in the world can deal with that pressure.
“They just seem to be ignorant of the fact that it’s there. They just deal with their cricket so well, regardless of the media and what’s going on around them. At the end of the day, if you don’t score runs, you don’t play. It’s such an intense pressure you start doubting things you do in your own life rather than your cricket and that’s a weird concept.
“It takes time to get used to and takes skill to handle it. Which is why a guy like Alastair Cook is absolutely phenomenal. As an opening batter in England, where we just seem to hammer players from a media point of view, has lasted 156 Tests with more than 10,000 runs.
“It is phenomenal how he has handled that amount of pressure for so long.”