ENG vs IND 2018: Paul Farbrace Lends Support To Under-Pressure Keaton Jennings

Paul Farbrace, England’s assistant coach, has backed struggling opener Keaton Jennings to retain his spot in the Test side for the tour of Sri Lanka later this year. Jennings failed to score big again, falling for just 10 in the second innings of the ongoing fifth England vs India Test.

Keaton Jennings had entered the Test at the Oval under immense pressure. His scores in the first four games of the series read – 42, 8, 11, 20, 13, 0 and 36. And he did little in the ongoing game to ease off the pressure. The southpaw managed just 23 in the first before being castled in a horrible manner for 10 in the second.

The latest failure has only extended Jennings’ poor run in Tests. The right-hander, who scored a century in India on his debut, has not scored a fifty in his last 18 innings, thus becoming the first England opener to achieve this dubious record. Jennings is yet to score a fifty in England despite playing 10 Tests. Jennings is averaging just 22.09 after representing England in 12 Tests .

His dismissal for 10 against India means he ends his Test summer with just 192 from 10 Test innings with a top score of just 42.

With every failure in the series, the speculations increased that Jennings would lose his place sooner rather than later. A place in the team for the tour of Sri Lanka is looking almost out of hands.  However, the retirement of his opening partner Alastair Cook seems to have worked in his favour. A century in Mumbai on debut can also make the selectors give him yet another chance. The way Sri Lanka have blown away opposition on turning tracks at home, England would be thinking twice before going to the Island nation with two new openers.

And Paul Farbrace believes that Jennings has acquitted himself well in conditions this summer that have favoured the bowlers. Farbrace also said Jennings has done enough to open the batting in the first Test at Galle.

“I would like to think he’s done enough in difficult situations to be opening the batting come the first Test in Sri Lanka,” said Farbrace at the end of day’s play. “I would like to think – and it’s only a personal view – that the selectors will stick with him.”

Instead of criticising Jennings for not converting his starts, Farbrace said that the opener gave the team good starts in both the innings.

“The one thing that has been quite impressive is that you’d never know looking at him that he’s actually not scored as many runs as he would have liked. Again today, he went out looking positive. His feet were moving nicely. He has tried exceptionally hard to get stuck in. But ultimately, as a player, you’re judged on the amount of runs you scored. We can say from our point of view that he’s played two important innings in this game to help us not lose early wickets and give us a chance of getting a score.”

Well, Jennings is not the only opener who has struggled in the ongoing series. The openers from both the sides average a collective 20.64 so far. In fact, Jennings’ average is the third best in the series behind Cook (31.2) and India’s Shikhar Dhawan (23.0).

Farbrace also lent his weight to both James Anderson and Stuart Broad making the tour of Sri Lanka. There have been talks that England might rest the veteran bowlers. Farbrace also made it clear that the team-management want the duo in best of conditions for next year’s Ashes.

“The reason there has been chat about those two is that we’ve all, at various stages, that there are some good bowlers coming through. But those two we want to make sure they are fresh and firing next summer. And they will pay a massive part in England winning the Ashes next summer.

“We’ve talked previously, especially about Jimmy, that he might not play every match of the tour and we might need to look after him. And he’s ended up coming up playing every game and he’s been our best bowler. You can’t be too precise with your planning in advance. I would be surprised if they were not on the trip. If they don’t play every game, then so be it,” he said.

Coming to the game, England finished the day on 114 for 2, extending their lead to 154.