After scoring runs by the bucketloads in the County Championship, Keaton Jennings got the call-up he deserved to the England squad on Wednesday. If all goes according to plan, Jennings should make his England debut in the fourth Test match against India in Mumbai.
Not that any of this was planned, since the call-up came from nowhere, and only after the impressive youngster Haseeb Hameed was ruled out of the rest of the series with a broken finger. After the left-hander was only just named the captain of the England Lions team to face the UAE in two one-day matches, less than 24 hours later, he was given the call to join up with England's squad next week.
Understandably, it has all been a little too much for Jennings to take in. "I need to have a coffee this afternoon, get my head around everything that's happened," Jennings said. "Andy Flower told me. It was a lot to take in, and very exciting. To be honest I wouldn't know what day it is at the moment, everything has been such a whirlwind."
Also excited were Jennings' parents – his English mother who hails from Sunderland and his South African father, the rather more famous Ray Jennings, former South Africa and RCB coach.
"My mum was in tears and my dad was speechless, and they're two things that don't happen very often," Jennings added. "All the Durham boys have been great – Mark Wood was bouncing off the walls, although that's not unusual for him."
Jennings forced his way into the England team by the sheer weight of runs scored in the domestic circuit. The 24-year-old plundered 1548 runs this past season at an average of 64.5 for Durham, while scoring seven centuries, with one of them a double hundred.
"He looks like a really solid opening batsman, who can play all forms of the game," England Lions head coach Andy Flower said. "But he also looks a very solid young man as well."
Jennings will now want to carry on his great form when England play India in the fourth Test match. The away side already cannot emulate the class of 2012, when that side won the series in India, as Virat Kohli's team have already taken a 2-0 series lead with just two more matches to go.
Mumbai, though, was one of England's happy hunting grounds on the last tour, four years ago, and Jennings, who has been to India when his father was the coach of the IPL side Royal Challengers Bangalore, will hope he has a real say in a possible victory.
"I've been lucky enough to go there once before as a youngster, when my dad was on the coaching staff of Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL," Jennings said. "That was a great experience, but this is going to be very different.
"To be going there as a member of the England squad, I'm going to have to introduce myself to a lot of new guys I guess, because a lot of them I only know as opposition. I reckon Stokesy (Ben Stokes, who is also from Durham) will be a good guy to break the ice."
