While the English Test opener Keaton Jennings is continuously struggling to score runs, former English skipper Nasser Hussain calls to drop him for the upcoming away three-match Test series against the hosts Sri Lanka, starting (Test series) from November 6.
After completing the India tour in December 2016, where Jennings had provided some impressive performances with the bat including his debutant Test century at Mumbai, he hasn’t played a single 50+ innings in Test cricket.
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In the ongoing five-match Test series, Jennings has run in a disaster form with the bat as he scored only 163 runs in nine innings with the average of just 18.11.
Hussain feels Jennings has hugely failed to play on his strength as the left-handed opening batsman was supposed to be a good played of spin but he has failed in the ongoing five-match home Test series against India.
Hussain wrote in his column for Daily Mail, “He’s supposed to be a good player of spin, which is why England are keen to take him on tour, but to get out caught at leg slip, more or less off the face of the bat, was a dozy piece of cricket.”
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In that column, Hussain has also pointed out Jennings’ mistakes in the ongoing fifth Test match of the series against India at The Oval where the opener scored only 23 and 10 runs.
Analysing his dismissals in the ongoing Test match, Hussain wrote, “The bowler Ravindra Jadeja often gets players out that way with his left-arm spin, so it was careless of Jennings – almost as if he’d forgotten the man was there. Then, in the second innings, he shouldered arms to Shami and was bowled top of middle stump. Shami was going so wide of the stumps he was almost bowling no-balls on the return crease, so Jennings must have known the ball would be coming back into him.”
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Hussain further added that Jennings has dropped a few important catches in this summer and he wouldn’t consider him for the upcoming Sri Lanka tour.
The former English skipper penned it, “Jennings has also dropped a few catches this summer, including an easy one at silly point that would have polished India off for 260. I prefer to give a guy one game too many rather than one too few, and it’s certainly true that life for left-handed openers has been tough in England over the past couple of years. But I wouldn’t take him to Sri Lanka.”
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Hussain has also named Jennings’ replacement for the upcoming Sri Lanka tour as he has chosen the Surrey opening left-handed batsman Rory Burns. The 28-year-old Burns is currently leading the run-scorer table of 2018 Specsavers County Championship (Division one) as he has scored more than 1,000 runs in this domestic first-class season.
Hussain wrote on this, “The sad truth is the cupboard is a bit bare. But it’s a results business, so I’d take Surrey’s Rory Burns, who has consistently been in the runs over the past few years. He’s also a left-hander, which should help deal with the threat of Sri Lanka’s slow left-armer Rangana Herath.
“In fact, being a good player of spin will be the key factor out there. Forget trying to combat swing, which has been the problem this summer. Sri Lanka will be a trial of spin from the start, so you pick your best six or seven batsmen against the turning ball. And it doesn’t matter whether they’re an opener or not.”
