Jennings impresses on troubling day for England

It's not just the shots you play. It's the shots you don't play. And, it would appear, the shots you don't drink.

If you were to walk past the nets while this England squad - enlarged as it is with members of the England Lions squad - were training, Ben Duckett is one of those who would stick out. His range of stroke and the crispness with which he hits the ball mark him out as an extravagant talent.

Keaton Jennings, by contrast, might easily escape your intention. While Duckett thumps the ball, Jennings nudges it. While Duckett punishes bowlers, Jennings tries to see them off.

But while Duckett is in the news for the wrong reasons, Jennings seems intent on making himself into the best player he can be.

Because of that, it is Jennings who is giving himself the best chance to play more Test cricket. And while Duckett appears to be struggling to come to terms with the sacrifices inherent in the life of an international sportsperson, Jennings continues to buckle down and grind out the runs.

Certainly that was the way it appeared on the first day of this warm-up match in Perth, anyway. While Duckett didn't even make the ground - he was dropped while the team management consider what, if any, action to take against him following an incident on a night out - Jennings was the one man in England's top five to reach 30 and eventually top-scored with a polished innings of 80.

It was an innings that kept England's heads above water on another troubled day. What might have been a gentle warm-up game against relatively modest opposition instead became another opportunity for self-inflicted damage as news of the incident involving Duckett broke. A squad supposedly doing everything it could to avoid the growing - though inaccurate - perception that they have a drinking culture was once again fuelling the image of them as a group of lads on a stag night who stagger out of bars every now and then and play a bit of cricket.

At least Jennings provides a suitably sober contrast. While England may have the image of champagne Charlies, he is much more Kool-aid Keaton. And, as his colleagues were drawn into edges as the ball darted around on a grassy surface and under overcast skies, Jennings left well, played straight and put away anything on his legs or hips. While many of his runs came from nudges down to fine leg, there was one pull for six and several firm cuts. He also played the spin well, demonstrating sweeps both reverse and conventional, until missing one on 80 and being adjudged lbw.

In reality, the Duckett incident amounts to very little. But coming in the context of the Stokes and Bairstow incidents, coming when the Ashes are slipping away and when they know the scrutiny of the media is upon then, coming on the very first night when a curfew had been relaxed and in the same bar in which Bairstow "greeted" Bancroft, it does seem extraordinarily dim.

And, of course, it provided an opportunity to a rival. With one batsman with aspirations to keep wicket out of contention, another - Joe Clarke - came into the side. Very well he played, too, until horribly mis-hitting a long-hop to mid-wicket. But make no mistake: the next time an England squad is announced, Clarke will be in it ahead of Duckett.

There was a nice innings from Liam Livingstone, too. Both he and Clarke have the class to play the game at the highest level and showed it in innings that contained some sparkling strokes. But both also fell after good starts. And, as Trevor Bayliss said with some regret at the end of the day, "20, 30 and 40s at this level are not good enough".

For nobody was that more true than Moeen Ali. Playing in this game in order to spend a significant amount of time at the crease, he made a typically lovely 24 before edging a fine delivery that demanded a stroke and left him just a fraction.

"I'm sure he's very disappointed," a not especially cheerful Bayliss said. "That's why he wanted to play in this game. He was looking forward to spending time in the middle."

Meanwhile, Dan Lawrence failed to take advantage of a let-off in the slips - he top-edged a footless slash - by pretty much repeating the short two balls later, before Gary Ballance edged into the gully and Ben Foakes was caught down the leg side.

Tom Curran, counter-attacking the spinners and driving nicely, ensured England were not to be embarrassed, though the bowling had long lost any sting it once had by the time he made most of his runs.

Curran was, however, rated by Bayliss as the best of England's bowlers in the final hour of the day. While Wood gained decent life from a surface offering some bounce but little pace - his away swinger also looked in fine order - he didn't overly impress the England coach. "He got the ball through okay, but he didn't really threaten to take a wicket," was Bayliss' assessment. In short, he didn't look like the quick-fix solution to England's one-paced attack.

It wasn't really a day for answers. And, as Mitchell Johnson prepared for his upcoming BBL stint by bowling in the nets adjacent to the pitch, it was a reminder of how quickly these series can come off the rails. Whichever way you look at it, things aren't going well for England, are they?