Who else is there? Five batsmen England could pick instead of Keaton Jennings

Questions marks are beginning to appear over the England opener's place in the team again, despite a very successful tour of Sri Lanka in 2018. TOM EDWARDS looks at who they could pick if they do choose to ditch Jennings...

Joe Denly

The only other option currently available to England if they do choose to drop Jennings. Still yet to make his Test debut, despite also going the tour of Sri Lanka in 2018.

At 32, Denly has shown himself to be a reliable player on the county circuit over a number of years, and enjoyed a brilliant white-ball resurgence in 2018.

His red-ball form, however, has actually been relatively modest. Batting at No.4 for Kent in Division Two he scored 828 runs at 34.50, so his selection as an opener would still represent something of a shot in the dark, despite his age.

Nick Gubbins

Has been on England's radar for some time now after a hugely impressive 2016 opening the batting for Middlesex as they were crowned County Champions.

Finished as the county's leading run-scorer with 1,409 runs at 61.26 and narrowly missed out on selection to Haseeb Hameed (remember him?) for the tour of India that summer.

Injury and a lack of form have made it difficult for him to replicate that form in the seasons since, scoring 899 runs at 29.97, which is hardly form of a player ready for Test cricket.

^{Nick Gubbins}

Daryl Mitchell

At the age of 35, it is very unlikely that Ed Smith and the England selectors are going to turn to the Worcestershire opener.

However, looking around the County Championship, it is hard to find many players who have been as consistent as Mitchell has been.

Not only was he the Pears' leading run-scorer in 2018, but was actually only second to Rory Burns in terms of runs scored by an opener in Division One last season.

Chris Rogers' success when he returned to the Australia side at the ripe age of 36 shows that age is just a number.

Alex Davies

Like Gubbins, Alex Davies is a name that has been mentioned when discussing possible options for the England opening berth for a little while now.

Also like Gubbins, this came off the back of one very good season. In 2017, he scored 916 runs at 39.82, which is not quite as good as Gubbins in 2016, but still good.

The final similarity with Gubbins is that he has struggled to take that form into later seasons. He scored 732 runs at 30.50 as the Red Rose were relegated to Division Two.

^{Alex Davies}

Jason Roy

Judging by the reaction to Rob Key's suggestion that Roy should join his Surrey teammate Rory Burns at the top of the England batting order, this is not a popular option.

The major bugbear, as pointed out by his fellow analyst Paul Collingwood, is that Roy does not open for Surrey in the County Championship, and has only done so on rare occasions.

Calls for him to be picked in the England Test side have been growing in recent weeks, but picking him as an opener does somewhat stink of forcing the issue.