I Wouldn't Take Keaton Jennings on Sri Lanka tour - Nasser Hussain
Published - 12 Sep 2018, 08:41 PM | Updated - 22 Aug 2024, 11:55 PM
Former England cricketer, Nasser Hussain thinks England should drop Keaton Jennings for the tour to Sri Lanka. The opening batsman failed to live up to the expectations in the five-match Test series against India. He had a pathetic run against India, as failed to score a single fifty throughout the series.
The left-hand batsman’s top score has been 46, as he watched his opening partner Alastair Cook bid goodbye to cricket in fitting style.
However, England won the series against India by a 4-1 margin, but the top-order has been shaky. With Cook retired, England will have to opt for two new openers, and therefore Jennings is a favourite, having played at the top level for some time now.
Jennings’ poor record in Tests
In 12 Tests, the opener averages mere 22.09. Ravindra Jadeja dismissed him in the first innings at The Oval. Whereas, it was Mohammed Shami, who got the better of him on the second occasion. Hussain initially supported the idea of taking Jennings to the Island nation, but the batter’s mode of dismissal changed Hussain’s mind.
“If you’d asked me before this game whether I’d have taken Jennings to Sri Lanka, I’ve have said yes. But his two dismissals here at The Oval have – reluctantly – changed my mind,” he wrote in his Daily Mail column.
“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.
“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.” he wrote.
His fielding has been awful too. The cricketer dropped a few sitters in slips.
“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.” he mentioned.
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