He was a South African in the year 2011, played for South African U-19. His father Ray Jennings is a former South African cricketer & current head coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore(RCB) in IPL. But once he has moved to England in April'2012, he became an English citizen after staying four years in England. And in four years time, with his some brilliant performances, he got his England cap, didn't miss the opportunity to show his caliber after Hasseb Hammed got injured.
Keaton Jennings, 24, got this opportunity when English Lions are playing in the UAE & Keaton was the captaining the side. He joined the group on Monday & on Thursday, on his debut test match, he scored a brilliant hundred!! It will remind you the story of Alastair Cook, who joined the England side just 48 hours before the start of the first test match in Rajkot in 2006 & scored a hundred! Keaton was the 11th partner of Cook since Andrew Strauss retired 4 years ago.
And this is an amazing start for Keaton. England is 0-2 down in the series & struggling. People are questioning the way they are approaching & constructing the innings. They are very defensive in their approach since the second test at Vizag.
Mumbai is a lucky ground for England. They won in 2006 & 2012. So this time also at Mumbai, they have shown a positive grit & intent. It was very evident the way Cook has approached his innings. And his partner, Keaton Jennings has played beautifully, his defense was very tight, was never in a hurry, never took any risk & was rotating the strike well.
When Keaton started first, he was a bit late to the fast bowlers & Umesh almost had got his wicket. Had Karun Nair caught him on zero, we had to wait for some more time to watch this beautiful batsman. His intention was clear. He was waiting for the odd loose balls to punish. He never allowed a bowler to dominate him. The way he played against the spinners, was a treat to watch. He always played the ground shots, quite a few of them were sweeps. There was odd bounces in the Wankhede wicket, later Bairstow got out to sweep off Ashwin, couldn't play it down because of the bounce. But Keaton was brilliant, very elegant. He has gelled with the team well & was calm in his approach. With the help of his brilliant hundred, England has got the upper hand in this test match at the end of day-1, in Mumbai, their favorite ground.
I am now waiting for the Song which Barmy Army will compose & sing for him when he comes out to bat in the second innings.
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