Debutant centurion Keaton Jennings praises Virat Kohli's astute captaincy

Keaton Jennings who scored a terrific debut century against the mighty Indians at Mumbai stated that he couldn’t have been happier and prouder with his effort at the end of the opening day’s play at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday. Jennings who began on a shaky note slowly came into his groove and made the Indians pay for his dropped catch early in the innings when he was yet to open his account.

His brilliant century propelled the visitors to 288/5 by the end of the day’s play and kept England on course for a big first-innings total. England who is trailing the home side by a 0-2 margin in the five-match series will be pretty satisfied with the things panned out on the opening day of the 4th Test. At the end of the day’s play Ben Stokes who has had a terrific series so far was batting on 25 and Jos Buttler who made a comeback in the Test squad during the Mohali Test was not out on 18 at the other end.

Keaton, who is the son of former South Africa cricketer and Royal Challengers Bangalore coach Ray Jennings became Alastair Cook’s 14th opening partner in Tests since the retirement of Andrew Strauss. The stylish left-hander who had some close shaves during the initial few overs was dropped by Karun Nair when he was yet to open his account. The southpaw went on to score a superb hundred which helped the visitors to take control in the 4th Test.

Jennings thanked his lucky stars for allowing him to reach a Test century on his debut against the star-studded bowling department of India. “I couldn’t be happier, couldn’t be prouder. A life early on and that got the beans going. (Before the game I was) just chatting to my uncle, trying to approach it like I would any other game. I woke up at 5 am this morning, thinking I missed the bus,” Jennings said.

The 24-year-old debutant said that the ball started turning after the tea interval, a session where the visitors lost Jennings, Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow in quick succession. Though he felt the pitch offered assistance to the spinners after tea, he said that the real difference was made by Kohli’s astute captaincy.

“After lunch, we felt like it started to turn. Also, Virat Kohli’s captaincy was superb. Those little things he did, bowlers taking wickets. Just when we thought, we were on top, they fought back really well,” he said.