In the aftermath of the humiliating nine-wicket defeat to Pakistan in the opening Test at Lord’s, England selectors on Monday recalled opener Keaton Jennings for the second Test at Headingley, while dropping an off-colour Mark Stoneman from the squad.
Jennings, 25, scored a century on his Test debut against India in Mumbai but lost his place midway through last season after struggling to build on that early milestone.
Stoneman failed twice at Lord’s — bowled by Mohammad Abbas in the first innings and defeated by a ball that kept low from Shadab Khan in the second — in a display bereft of confidence.
“Keaton Jennings showed a strong temperament in scoring a hundred on his Test match debut against India in December 2016,” national selector Ed Smith said.
“Keaton has found good form in county cricket this season, including three centuries in his last seven innings.”
“Mark Stoneman misses out at Headingley. Mark has experienced a disappointing start to the 2018 season and had a difficult Test match at Lord’s,” Smith added.
Trailing 0-1 in the two-match series, the hosts will attempt to square it off with a win in the second Test that starts at the Headingley Cricket Ground on June 1.
After the disappointing defeat in the first Test, English skipper Joe Root told BBC’s Test Match Special, “We know we’re under-performing … we’ve not performed to anywhere we need to. It’s very difficult to take as a talented group of players … (but) we fully believe we can get to where we want to get to. We’ve got to … just find a way.
“We are ambitious, we want to win but sometimes we make poor decisions. We’ve got to be smarter with that. Guys have got to find a way of scoring runs. Ultimately it’s about the number of runs you score, not how long it takes you and maybe on occasion we need to absorb a bit more pressure. We’ve seen in the past guys like Ben Stokes come in at 40/4 and take a game away from a side. It’s a fine margin. You have to recognise the right times to attack.”
England squad: Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root (Captain), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow (WK), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Dom Bess, Mark Wood, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Chris Woakes.
