INTERVIEW
Follow UsFew batters in history have enjoyed a better introduction to international cricket than what Keaton Jennings did against India in 2016.
Walking into the England XI mid-way through the series with his side trailing 0-2, Jennings, 24 at the time of his debut, announced himself to the world with a stunning Day 1 ton in Mumbai against prime Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin. Two innings later, he followed it up with a fourth innings fifty on a Day 5 Chennai track.
For two weeks, Jennings seemed to have the world at his feet.
However, things soon came crashing down brutally for Jennings, who struggled to hit the same heights again.
A horror 18-inning period between 2017 & mid-2018 saw him average 17.72 with no fifty-plus scores, and by early 2019, he found himself fully out of the England Test set-up.
It is one thing enduring a tough period in international cricket, but for a four-year period across 2017 and 2020, Jennings also struggled to pile the runs in domestic cricket, averaging 29.78 across 66 first-class games.
By late 2020, he nearly became the forgotten man of English cricket.
However, from the depths of despair in 2020, the last three years have seen Jennings turn around his career spectacularly.
Since the start of 2021, 44 batters have scored 2,500 or more first-class runs. Among them, only three have registered a better average than Jennings (59.79), who has struck a whopping 9 tons during this period.
This average rises to a further 63.69 since the start of 2022, and during this period, he’s smashed a triple ton, a double ton and three other 150+ scores.
Put simply, Jennings, currently, is playing the best cricket of his career.
A multitude of factors have been responsible for this upturn in fortunes, but 31 now, Jennings puts this turnaround down to him maturing as a person.
“Covid was a bit of a turning point for me,” Jennings says, speaking exclusively to Cricket.com.
“I finished a degree, and then I went on to do a MBA. So I looked at my cricket very objectively, as ‘Player A’ as opposed to being ‘Keaton’.
“And I think I made some good changes. I’ve changed as a person as well, which has allowed me a lot of freedom.
“Some of the shots I’ve played (in the last couple of years) I probably wouldn’t have played previously. I would have classified them as ‘high risk’. Crucially, I’m enjoying my cricket.
“The Covid time gave me a perspective of what actually matters in life and what doesn’t. I’m very happy at the moment, and I just wanna keep going.”
Jennings’ words sound eerily familiar, in that his transformation is very similar to that of Usman Khawaja, who recently has been vocal about how a free, unburdened mind has enabled him to play his best cricket.
Khawaja might be playing for an arch-rival in Australia, but Jennings is one among many who has taken inspiration from the words spoken by the 37-year-old.
“One hundred percent (I took inspiration from Khawaja’s words),” Jennings says.
“The interview he did, it resonated with me quite loudly. He is obviously a guy that has come back into the Australian side at quite a later age. His philosophy has freed him up and has allowed him to play his best cricket.”
By his own admission, this 2.0 version of Jennings has been playing a lot more aggressively. And the numbers back it up too.
In the last three years, he’s been striking at 56.00, which is 11 more than the strike rate he registered in the first 10 years of his career. Last month, he accumulated 218 runs against India ‘A’ in the first unofficial Test off just 253 balls.
How much of this positivity is down to the culture brought in by Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum?
“Probably accelerated by the Baz and Stokes era. But I think this process (of mine) started before that,” Jennings says.
“This process for me started in 2021. I worked a lot with Carl Crowe and my dad and looked at my game very objectively. Dale Benkenstein, our new coach at Lancashire, has also been key in this process.
“So the process started about three years ago, but Stokes and Baz’s philosophy has accelerated the positive brand of cricket I’ve adopted. You want to be a part of what they’re creating.”
Jennings’ last Test came back in 2019, but he is very much on the management’s radar. 18 months ago, he was a part of the England squad that whitewashed Pakistan 3-0, and these days, he is a regular in the England Lions set-up.
Breaking into this settled England top-order is an arduous task, but the left-handed opener says he knows exactly what he needs to do to keep knocking on the door.
“Fundamentally, it’s weight of runs,” Jennings says.
“For me, it’s about scoring as many runs as I can as quickly as I can. It’s the same whether I’m playing for Lions or Lancashire or England. I personally want to win games of cricket, and the way to do it is bat and bat well.”
Any elite professional athlete would much rather make it to the top without suffering a damning fall, and Jennings is no different.
He does not think it’s ever ‘necessary’ to learn things the hard way — by going through an extended lean patch — but is grateful for the experiences he’s been through, for he believes they’ve played a part in shaping him into the person he is today.
“I don’t think it’s ever necessary (to have a fall). If you look at some of the all time greats, they’ve not had those extended lean patches. So I don’t think it’s necessary,” Jennings says.
“But do I look back on that phase with regret? Absolutely not. It’s helped me shape the person I am today. I have experiences that a lot of other guys don’t have. And then when you move out of cricket, I’ve handled the pressure of failing in front of 50 million people and coming out the other side. It gives you a very different perspective to just going out there and succeeding.
“I would have loved to get more runs during the 2017 & 2018 period and hold down my place, but it wasn’t to be. I have loved the cricket I’ve played over the last three years, hopefully I can continue to do that.”
With new-gained wisdom, would Keaton Jennings do things differently if he were to get an extended run in the England side, again?
“There’s a million things I’d do differently,” he says.
“If I got out, previously, I’d be looking at footage to try and get better. I always have the mentality of getting better but I used to hold on to things quite a bit. Now, I’ve got the mental freedom to put the errors to bed and keep a smile on my face.
“Looking back at my younger self, I used to finish Test matches, drive back to Durham and hit more balls to try and get better. That was my way of fronting up to the issue. In hindsight, I should have just sat down, had a beer and chilled out.”
The key to Jennings’ success in Asia
In the years gone by, Jennings has been open about the fact that he hates being labeled an Asia specialist. And honestly, you cannot blame him: no athlete likes to be put under one particular bracket.
Still, it’s impossible to not single out and celebrate the left-hander’s record in the subcontinent, for it’s that spectacular.
In 5 Tests in Asia, Jennings averages 44.44 and has struck 2 tons, including an epic 146* in the third innings in Galle against a Sri Lankan attack that included Rangana Herath.
Overall in first-class cricket, he averages 40.78 in 24 innings in Asia, and just a month ago, he smoked a 188-ball 154 against India ‘A’ in Ahmedabad.
The 31-year-old, whose name always pops up whenever England are touring the subcontinent, puts his success in Asia down to him mastering the sweep shot very early in his career.
“It’s probably a combination of things,” Jennings says of his success in the subcontinent.
“Before I made my debut in 2016, there was an England Lions spin camp in Dubai. Graham Thorpe and Andy Flower were brilliant in helping me learn to sweep. I think that’s allowed me to find a real strength of mine and put pressure back on the bowler and disrupt his lengths.
“At times I feel like the sweep is my go-to shot rather than the forward defence, because that to me is a very good option when the ball is turning.
“On the recent England Lions ‘A’ tour to India, Dinesh Karthik (DK) spoke a lot about mixing that in with a good strong defence and I think he is 100% right. Because I’m tall, I can be quite awkward at getting forward and back.
“I love coming here to Asia. It’s so different to what we get back home. Food, culture, the noise, the intensity. It is so different. That discomfort, I love it. I think I thrive in situations that are uncomfortable.”
Batters like Jennings, who thrive in certain conditions, have indeed forced experts to have conversations with regards to teams going ‘horses for courses’ in terms of batters.
Historically, teams have always picked bowlers taking conditions into account, but that’s never been the case when it comes to batters.
Jennings believes there’s a good reason for teams to go the ‘horses for courses’ way when it comes to batters, but is of the opinion that the human aspect tied to the decision makes it very complicated for sides to treat batters the same way they treat bowlers.
“There’s no reason why cricket can’t go that way,” Jennings says of teams picking batters relative to conditions.
“But when you look at the makeup of a batter, if you have that inconsistency in selection, that in itself creates anxiety.
“If teams are to adopt the horses-for-courses method for batters, there’s got to be a huge amount of trust between the batters and coaches. Because you could rip a player’s confidence to shreds if he goes and gets a hundred in England, and you go and tell him that you can’t play in Asia.
“It will take an incredibly strong environment and culture for that to thrive I think.”
When it comes to Jennings, however, ‘Asia specialist’ is not the only bracket he has been put under. For the longest time, the left-hander has been seen as a red-ball specialist.
However, the 31-year-old has been one of the most consistent white-ball players in England. Since 2018, Jennings has averaged over 40 in List A cricket in every calendar year, and 2023 saw him enjoy his best ever season in 50-over cricket, with him averaging 61.5 while striking at 95.6.
Jennings is aware that he is an old-school batter in white-ball cricket, but, for the time being, he does not have his eyes on national selection.
“I think my white-ball numbers are good, I think I’ve won a lot of games. Maybe my style doesn’t suit, at times, the way one-day cricket is moving. But all I can do is score runs. I love my one-day cricket. It’s good fun. Hopefully I can continue to perform.”
