ENG vs PAK: Keaton Jennings drafted into place of Mark Stoneman for the second Test

England are currently playing a two-match Test series versus Pakistan and have got off to a horrendous start. They were thumped by nine wickets by Sarfraz Ahmed’s men at the Lord’s Cricket Stadium- The Home of Cricket. The second Test begins on June 1 in Leeds and the home team will be keen for redemption following their lacklustre run in the opening match.

In a bid to make a comeback, Joe Root’s men made one change to their squad. They replaced Mark Stoneman with South African-born Keaton Jennings. Stoneman could only manage 13 runs in the contest and failed to take England off to a steady start on both occasions. The left-hander was nipped out by Mohammad Abbas in the first innings followed by his dismissal by Shadab Khan.

“Keaton has found good form”- Smith

On the contrary, Jennings has been in decent form in the County Circuit. He has represented Lancashire in the Specsavers Championship Division One and racked up 314 runs in five matches at an average of 44.85. He also has a couple of hundreds to his name along with a top score of 146 versus Nottinghamshire. Moreover, he also notched 306 runs in five matches of the Royal London Cup.

“Keaton Jennings showed a strong temperament in scoring a hundred on his Test match debut against India in December 2016. Keaton has found good form in county cricket this season, including three centuries in his last seven innings (two in the First Division of the County Championship, one in the Royal London One-Day Cup),” Ed Smith, the national selector, mentioned while justifying his inclusion.

“Mark Stoneman misses out at Emerald Headingley. Mark has experienced a disappointing start to the 2018 season and had a difficult Test match at Lord’s,” the selector highlighted Stoneman’s poor run of form as a reason for his omission.

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