Bookworm batter Keaton Jennings ready to write new chapter in Pakistan

Keaton Jennings ready to write new chapter: Bookworm batter believes story of his England comeback will have happy ending… as he skips MBA graduation for Pakistan Test

• Keaton Jennings will miss his MBA graduation as it’s the day before Pakistan Test 
• The Lancashire batter knows why he was dropped, but earned his England recall 
• Both of the bookworm business graduate’s Test hundreds have come in Asia 

The night before England’s final Test in Pakistan, Keaton Jennings will swap his helmet and bat for a mortarboard and scroll.

‘I’m missing my graduation so I have contacted the university to try to get a little cap and scroll sent out and to join the ceremony virtually,’ the 30-year-old tells Sportsmail. ‘So the night before the Test match, I will be in my hotel room, cap on, watching the event! That will be good craic.’

Jennings is graduating with distinction from the University of Manchester after completing his two-year Master of Business Administration (MBA) course. It is his second degree.

This winter, then, is the first time in a long time that he does not have to worry about hitting the books as well as hitting balls. But for Jennings, the reading never stops.

Keaton Jennings is missing his MBA business graduation to represent England in Pakistan

‘You’ll laugh but I’ve probably read just as many management books as I did while I was studying,’ he smiles. ‘I’ve got three books on the go. I’m reading Ed Smith’s Making Decisions, Hitting Against the Spin by Ben Jones and Nathan Leamon, and one about negotiating skills.’

Negotiating is something Jennings has experience of. Last year, he joined the management team of his county, Lancashire, in Dubai as they pitched to Emirates to renew their sponsorship.

‘It was a really cool experience and a different pressure from cricket,’ he explains. ‘In cricket, you know how to deal with things like nicking off.

‘But when you sit in a business meeting, if you say something wrong, there’s a 10-year agreement sitting on the table that could go belly up.’

Jennings is now considering enrolling on the Leadership in Sport master’s course run by former England national selector Smith, with the aim of becoming a chief executive in cricket or another sports organisation. Aside from his long-term ambitions, he believes his studies have also helped his cricket.

‘Previously, when I looked at my game, I was sensitive with how I took criticism,’ he says. ‘With the MBA, you have to be critical of situations, and that has given me perspective and an ability to be critical of my cricket and myself.

Jennings was top run-scorer in Division One for Lancashire this year, earning an England recall

‘I’ll throw a little MBA term in — I have a Kaizen approach to my cricket.’

The Kaizen approach is a method of continuous improvement and it is not just the mental side of his game that he has worked on since he played the last of his 17 England Tests, in 2019. ‘The big thing I have changed is the position of my hands,’ he reveals. ‘I watched footage of guys like Matty Hayden. His hands were down on the floor. So I put my bat down and started grooming that for the last two seasons.’

It seems to have worked, as Jennings was this year’s top run-scorer in Division One of the County Championship. The left-handed opener’s prolific summer made his case for an England recall impossible to ignore, even though he was not sure it would ever come.

‘At some point during the last three years, you make peace with not playing for England again,’ says Jennings, who was selected for a series in Sri Lanka in March 2020 but it was abandoned because of the Covid pandemic.

‘I always felt I was young enough to have the opportunity again, but it wasn’t a situation that I would have bet my mortgage on happening. So I am buzzing to be involved.’

Jennings is coming into a very different England set-up from the last time he was there. Under the leadership of coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes — Jennings’s former Durham team-mate — even the openers are expected to score quickly.

Jennings’s strike-rate in the Championship this year was a respectable 57.94 and England’s managing director Rob Key said he had ‘gone about things in a manner aligned to what Ben and Brendon are after’.

Jennings has a style of play which is what Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum want for England

‘They are nice words to hear,’ he says. ‘I’ve done things differently in my first 20, 30 balls — walked down the wicket, stood slightly deeper — which is the essence of what Stokesy and Baz want.

‘They want you to put pressure on the opposition. It’s a style that’s entertaining. Baz summed it up beautifully when he came into the job: cricket is a product and you want people to watch it.

‘To be a part of it and to be trusted with the responsibility of entertaining is awesome. I’m looking forward to playing under Stokesy, one of my good mates and a guy who I respect.

‘His documentary was a proper heartstring-puller. He has an amazing ability to rally people on and off the field.’

Jennings hailed Stokes’ documentary, pictured here together for England in November 2018

Jennings has been impressed with how Stokes has backed his team-mates as skipper. Although Jennings is himself the beneficiary of Alex Lees being discarded, the Durham opener is the first player to be properly dropped in the Stokes era and only after a run of 10 straight Tests.

‘It’s amazing for the environment and fantastic as a player when you feel like you have time and you’re not playing for your place,’ says Jennings.

However, he accepts he deserved to be dropped when he was in 2019. After scoring a century on his debut in India in December 2016, then another in his second spell in the team in Sri Lanka in November 2018, he managed just 103 runs in his last eight innings. His overall Test average is 25.19.

‘I don’t think my performances warranted selection,’ admits Jennings. ‘Off the field, I didn’t handle myself efficiently. I spent a lot of time worrying or anxious.

Jennings has been called a subcontinent specialist with his two Test hundreds achieved in Asia

‘I read some of the notes I wrote at the time and you can see where your headspace is. I’d handle that situation very differently now.’

Given his two Test hundreds have come in Asia, Jennings has been unfairly labelled a subcontinent specialist. He can prove he is much more than that if he keeps his place and plays in next summer’s home Ashes series.

‘Everybody wants to show they can play in all conditions,’ says Jennings. ‘Ashes cricket is what every cricketer gets judged by, but I haven’t looked past this Pakistan tour. In international cricket, you can easily look too far ahead. This feels like a debut and I am just going to enjoy it. It’s special to wear your country’s badge on your chest.

‘That feeling of opening the plastic packet and seeing your Test number underneath is something you need to cherish and I’ll be cherishing every moment I’m able to put on an England shirt.’

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