Time must surely be running out for Jennings after unusual dismissal

SAM MORSHEAD AT THE AGEAS BOWL: The England opener hokey-cokey is such a tired topic that it’s tucked up in bed, lights off, well before 9pm, yet it remains a fundamental issue, deserving of constant scrutiny

^{Keaton Jennings was dismissed for a duck on Thursday}

It was a moment that may haunt Keaton Jennings for some time to come.

Did England’s opening batsman predict an outswinger from Jasprit Bumrah? Did he pre-meditate the leave that would require? Did he lose track of the ball in the flight?

In the end, it doesn’t really matter; Jennings shouldered arms to the 13th delivery of this Test match at the Ageas Bowl and was pinned lbw right in front of all three stumps. Plumber than a man with a van full of U-bends.

And so the debate begins again.

The England opener hokey-cokey is such a tired topic that it’s tucked up in bed, lights off, well before 9pm, yet it remains a fundamental issue, deserving of constant scrutiny.

"He's bowled a boomerang"

Jennings simply can't get to grips with the swing from Bumrah and goes for 0.

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If anything, the abject failure to find a replacement for Andrew Strauss - and imminently a successor to Alastair Cook - demands more attention the longer it drags on, not less. There’s no point sticking fingers in ears and belting out a chorus of ‘nah nah nah nah nah’.

We need to address this as adults, and among England’s litany of red-ball problems, this is one of the biggest.

Jennings, playing in his 11th Test, received a stay of execution after a meagre start to the current series against India, but it’s not entirely clear whether that was a vote of confidence in the batsman himself or a critique of the alternative options.

It felt like a shrug-of-the-shoulders selection at the time and the events of Thursday morning in Southampton haven’t gone to suggest otherwise.

At what point, then, do Ed Smith, James Taylor and Trevor Bayliss say enough is enough?

How long does a player deserve or need to prove himself?

^{Jennings has struggled at the top of England's order}

For an English opener, Jennings’ average against seam over the course of his Test career is worse than all but only three others worldwide who have filled the role in 10 or more innings since 2006.

Against the quicks, he averages just 16.56. Only Junaid Siddique of Bangladesh, and the West Indies pair of Rajendra Chandrika and Lendl Simmons have fared worse over the past 12 years.

When he was initially dropped from the England team, for his one-time county team-mate Mark Stoneman, Jennings’ overall Test average was a shade over 24. Now, it has slipped below 22, from 19 innings.

Stoneman, whose average against seam in Tests was almost exactly the same as his overall average of 27.68, got 20 knocks before he was cut. Before him, Alex Hales was afforded 21 innings, Adam Lyth got 13, Ben Duckett seven. Injury allowed Haseeb Hameed just six.

We must be approaching Jennings’ tipping point now.

Still, there is an argument that says dropping him is pointless, that chopping and changing faster than a butcher running late for a date is counter-productive, that there are far too few replacements available in the county game (though who knows what Rory Burns, having passed 1,000 Championship runs for the fifth season in a row, thinks about that).

^{The batsman has batted 19 times for England}

Besides, it could be argued, on current form alone it is impossible to separate Jennings and Cook.

The Lancashire man has 94 runs at 15.66 against India, compared to Cook’s 97 at 16.16, and a strike rate of 45.85 from 205 balls compared to 47.78 from 203.

Jennings has played a false shot - a play-and-miss or an edge - to 18 per cent of balls faced this series, while Cook has done so to 19 per cent.

Jennings has left 28 per cent of the balls he’s faced, Cook has offered no shot to 24 per cent.

But Cook’s stock, despite a rut in form long and deep enough run irrigation through his Bedfordshire farm, is still rich. After his first 19 Test innings, the Essex opener’s average was 49.53. He had made three centuries and three further fifties.

That was the rock on which a career could be built.

Jennings finds his house not so much sat on sand as made out of the stuff.