England Vs South Africa 2017 – Pressure Mounting On Keaton Jennings To Perform
Apr 6, 2019 at 2:11 PM
It now seriously seems that the spot of the opening partner of Alastair Cook is a jinxed one! As many as 11 candidates have auditioned for the slot since the retirement of Andrew Strauss in mid-2012, and still, not a single individual has been able to secure that position. This has indirectly adversely affected Cook’s batting as well since he himself is not certain of who is partner will be for the long term.
South Africa born Keaton Jennings is currently Cook’s partner, and like his predecessors, Jennings too has struggled for consistency. Barring a debut century in Mumbai, there isn’t anything much to write about the southpaw, and his string of low scores against South Africa in the ongoing home Test series makes for a sorry advertisement.
With the Ashes in Australia later this year, the pressure is heavily mounting on Jennings to play a few decisive knocks, else his career could be headed nowhere. Recently, former England skipper Nasser Hussain too iterated the same, in an article for The Mail.
“When I look at Keaton Jennings, I see a batsman who is capable of scoring Test runs,” wrote Hussain. “But he has a problem, and it’s one you can’t afford at this level — he keeps making the same mistake.He is following the ball outside off stump when he should be keeping the bat inside the line. In one respect he reminds me of Marcus Trescothick. He is an upright left-hander who likes to hold the pose after a shot.”
“His dismissals have been of a repetitive nature. He is vulnerable to the ball over the top of off stump, and as an opener, in Test cricket, you are going to get a lot of that. Despite all that, I think Jennings has a chance to succeed if he goes away and works at his game. You could see at The Oval that he was thinking about things because he took the guard out of his crease against Vernon Philander and tried to get a bit lower,” he added.