Woke up at 5, panicked I had missed the bus: Jennings

MUMBAI: England have just about got a few things right on this tour. One of them was to throw Keaton Jennings in at the deep end after young Haseeb Hameed was ruled out of the tour with a broken finger. The opener's debut century came as if out of the syllabus.
The 24-year-old son of former South Africa and Royal Challengers Bangalore coach Ray Jennings, survived some anxious moments initially to become a defining figure on an absorbing first day at the Wankhede.
"I suppose waking up this morning if someone said to me you will get a Test hundred, I would have put them off. I woke up at 5 this morning thinking I will miss the bus. So I jumped out of bed, panicked where everything is... settled myself down and then I saw the time. It's been surreal that it's come on debut," said the debutant.
Jennings' task was cut out against Ashwin. "Ashwin's a really good bowler. I think his average against left-handers was 18. You don't get stats like that from not knowing what you are doing. You try and come up with a gameplan and try and back yourself and your technique and process to combat him," said Jennings.
The South Africa-born played with great coherence and game sense even though it was only 72 hours after he had landed in India.
It does help when you have your dad as your coach as technique would have been served on the dinner table morning and night.
England may not have gained much so far from this tour. But they have had two big plusses in Hameed and Jennings. With Alastair Cook going nowhere, England could be faced with a problem of plenty at the top.
"Thankfully, it's not my problem. Hopefully I can keep going the way I have gone today and make it a good problem. It's out of my hands and it's not controllable for me," Jennings said, "If I play, two Tests, one Test, whatever in my career, hopefully I can make them two happy Tests. Haseeb has played beautifully well and was a real pleasure to watch. I started my Durham career at No 3. It's not a role I have played a lot but you are not going to pass up an opportunity to play international cricket regardless of what role you play whether it's opening the batting or batting at 10."