Keaton Jennings scored 48 against South Africa earlier in the third match. (Source: AP)
England coach Trevor Bayliss has backed opening batsman Keaton Jennings to sort his batting and succeed in international cricket despite not having a good outing in the series against South Africa. While several questions have been raised about his technique, Bayliss has claimed that Jennings has the right attitude to overcome his shortcomings.
“Test cricket is a harsh world to come into. The one thing you would expect every player to have (is) guts – determination, the desire to improve and get better,” said Bayliss.
“We thought in the second innings at The Oval he showed real application (scoring 48) and he really applied himself and got stuck in. Again today he started showing glimpses of someone who has made adjustments,” added Bayliss.
He further added, “There is a lot said about players being found out at international level, he found out a lot about himself in these last few test matches and there are areas of his game that he would want to work on but there hasn’t been time to take a step back and perhaps work at things he would like to work on and enable him to be more successful in test cricket.”
Stating that he has the right attitude to survive, Bayliss added, “The one thing we would judge him on is his character, his personality to cope with the last few weeks. I have to say he is a very honest young man who works extremely hard at his game and given the chance to get through this spell and work at his game I think he will make a success at international cricket.”
