India vs England: Keaton Jennings refuses to blame pigeon for unlucky dismissal

England batsman Keaton Jennings has denied his attempts to shoo away a pigeon on the opening day of the first Test against India were behind his dismissal.

Play was paused momentarily with Jennings and Joe Root at the crease while the players tried to clear the stubborn bird from the middle of the field at Edgbaston.

With the pigeon eventually taken care of, Jennings - who chalked up 42 runs -was bowled by Mohammed Shami from the very next delivery, the batsman unfortunate to see the ball trickle onto the stumps after ricocheting off his body.

But the 26-year-old insists the incident will not stick in his craw.

“The best players in the world have those lucky breaks go in their favour, but that’s the way it is,” he said.

“I’ve obviously made an error, misjudged the ball and it’s ended up on my stump. That’s the way it is.

“Thirtyovers before, people were standing up behind the bowler’s arm, so you could say that distracted me as well.

“You refocus, you go through your own process between each ball. I wouldn’t say it distracted me at all.

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“I suppose it just happens to be the ball before I got out that there’s a huge hoo-ha about a pigeon.”

England reached stumps on 285-9, having been 216-3 before Root (80)was run out by Virat Kohli to prompt a collapse.

First Published: Aug 02, 2018 11:57 IST