Another brilliant left handed opener - Keaton Jennings

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.

Apathy of Indian pace bowlers

There is always a concern about the pace attack of 'Men in blue' & this gets more exposed when India plays in the pace friendly decks of England, Australia, South Africa & New-Zealand. It is not like that India never produced quality fast bowlers. They come into the team with fierce actions & great statistics. But soon after some matches, their average pace came down & many a times, they faded away.

India has produced Kapil Dev, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Varun Aroon, Umesh Yadav, VRV Singh, Md. Shami. Many of them were, are match winners. Hope you remember that spell of Ishant against Ricky Ponting in an Australian wicket in 2008. He had speed, he had aggression. But soon after he was injured & his speed came down. Although he is still one of the spearhead of Indian attack now. Same story goes with Munaf who took seven wickets in his debut test against England. But now? Remember Irfan Pathan? Many were speaking that India has got a Wasim Akram in him. Wasim was also very positive about him, started his career with a bang, took a test hattrick. Then slowly he has disappeared. How many fast bowlers India has changed in last 2-3 years time? 

The neighboring country Pakistan is producing one after another fast bowlers & they have a tradition of that. Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoib Akhtar & these days Md. Amir, Juniad Khan - all are classy fast bowlers. Is this more about the environment where a person born? May be, yes. In Pakistan, they play more with tennis balls where you can't do much with the technique. Only the pace can help to beat the batsman. 

Kapil Dev was the highest test wicket takers for a long time.But whenever there is a discussion among the parents, they want to make their children Sachin, Saurav, Virat & very few will speak about Kapil Dev or Glenn McGrath or a Brett Lee or Wasim Akram. In India, children can imagine about becoming a great batsman. This is a phobia. And the obvious reason is the glamour around a batsman is more than of a bowler in India. Batsman is like a national obsession in our country. Every child gets inspiration to become a batsman. Because he/she is visualizing the glamour quotient of a batsman in our country. I have heard people of speaking about facility. But I don't think if we really provide high class facility also, great bowlers will born. This is more about the mindset, the environment. 

And another very important factor is the wicket. Indian wickets are more batting friendly. And the fans want that too. They want to see more 4s & 6s. This is entertainment. How many of us really want to see a game where a bowler is continuously bowling great swings & troubling the batsmen? 

Need of the hour is a long term plan. BCCI is the richest cricket body in the World. They have to identify the raw talent at a very early age. They have to bring these kids under one roof, have to prepare them, inspire them to become a great pacer. Domestic tournament wickets should be a bit more bowler friendly. Hard bouncy tracks should be prepared. Then definitely things will change & India will also see great pacers who will be bowling fast, swing the ball in both ways & in no time bowlers also will help us to win matches more frequently.