Jennings has century on debut after false starts

‘Dream come true’ for England opener after late call-up against India

Keaton Jennings overcame two false starts on his first day of Test cricket before finishing with a priceless debut century for England.

By the time the opener came to reflect on his achievement last night at the Wankhede Stadium, he had already been up for more than 12 hours.

Big-match nerves saw to that, waking him with a start at 5am.

It was only after a second check on his alarm clock that he realised time was still on his side to easily make the 9.30am start to the fourth Test against India.

Jennings’ second anxious moment came in the middle when, still without a run to his name off 10 balls, he looped a catch to gully off Umesh Yadav and watched helplessly as Karun Nair failed to hold on diving high to his left.

Save for a close call too on 10, when he marginally survived an India review for lbw, the South Africa-born opener did not put a foot wrong in a 4½-hour innings of 112 which underpinned England’s 288 for five after Alastair Cook won the toss.

He eventually fell to Ravi Ashwin (four for 75) but had done much to give England the edge by then.

“It’s been a dream come true, and it’s just surreal that it’s come on debut,” added Jennings, who arrived in India only on Monday after being called up from England Lions’ tour of Dubai to replace the injured Haseeb Hameed.

England’s challenge now is to make Jennings’ perfect start a telling one as they try to battle back from 2-0 down with two to play.

Jennings’ contribution may well have put England ahead of the game with a stumps total of 288 for five after Alastair Cook won a crucial toss.

The 24-year-old South Africa-born opener was assured after his early scrapes and there were several convincing cover-drives and pulls among his 13 boundaries in stands of 99 with Cook and 94 with Moeen Ali (50) as England negotiated the wiles of Ashwin (four for 75).

England were putting into action coach Trevor Bayliss’ instruction to return to batting with ‘intent’, as in last month’s drawn opener in Rajkot.

But it was an approach which would cost Cook his wicket four short of his 50, in atypical fashion for England’s greatest accumulator of runs, when he went up the pitch in Ravindra Jadeja’s first over and fell to a juggled stumping by Parthiv Patel as the ball turned and bounced between bat and body.

England then also lost Joe Root soon after lunch, edging an attempted pushdrive at Ashwin to slip.

But Moeen, scratchy at first and after several flirtations with the slips off both pace and spin, played with increasing conviction until – straight after reaching his half-century – he miscued an attempted slog-sweep to short midwicket from the first delivery of a new Ashwin spell.

When Jennings went as well, edging some extra bounce to gully two balls later, England suddenly had work to do again, with Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes thrown together on nought.

The former, so prolific with the bat this year, fell cheaply for once – to a sweep at Ashwin straight to deep backward-square.

But on a pitch which was already providing significant assistance for the spinners, Jennings had arguably done plenty already to give England the opportunity at least to cement a telling advantage.

Picture: AP. Keaton Jennings on his way to a debut century.