Jennings' rut leaves him running out of time

Perhaps it was the sight of Haseeb Hameed in the England dressing room that unsettled Keaton Jennings.

It was like being measured for a coffin while still in the hospital bed. Like your partner downloading Tinder on their phone. Like the selectors asking him what he was planning on doing over Christmas.

While Jennings might console himself with the thought that there is room for him and Hameed in the top three, it is hard to escape the conclusion that Hameed is the one the England management want to settle down with.

Jennings? Increasingly, he seems like a fling. A holiday romance. Things seemed fun in India. But now? The henna tattoos and braids aren't really working back in England. Time is running out.

This was a great opportunity for Jennings. News that Vernon Philander was unable to play due to a back injury must have come as a huge relief. Philander has dismissed him three times in the series, after all, and dominated him so badly their encounters have resembled bullying.

But despite that lucky break, despite being dropped on 4 - Kagiso Rabada was unable to cling on to one that lobbed off an inside edge, on to the pad and down to where short-leg should probably have been waiting - despite playing and missing seven times in his 37-ball stay, he was unable to take advantage. The dismissal - edging one angled across him with a tentative prod from the crease - was as inevitable as it was familiar. He now averages 15.57 in the series.

That's a huge part of Jennings' problem. He knows, South Africa know, we all know, he has an issue in playing such deliveries. In nearly every innings this series, he has been caught on the crease, unsure whether to play or whether to leave and ending up doing a bit of both and a lot of neither. His dismissals - and the manner of his dismissals - have started to look inevitable. The South African bowlers, like hyenas circling round a dying buffalo, know they only have to wait.

There is sympathy and respect for Jennings from the England management, though. They admire his work ethic and respect his unflustered character. While many batsmen would have crumbled in the face of the chastening experience Jennings had of being worked over at The Oval - think of the way Heino Kuhn lost his composure and attempted a desperate heave across the line when the bowlers got on top of him - Jennings merely smiled, nodded his respect to the bowler and prepared for the next delivery. His 48 was ugly in many ways, but it was also brave and admirable in other ways. There is little doubting his temperament; it's his technique that has been exposed.

"Test cricket is harsh," Paul Farbrace, the England assistant coach, admitted. "There's a lot said about people being found out in Test cricket. Well, Keaton has found out a lot about himself. He knows there are areas of his game he wants to work on. But there hasn't been time to step back and do the work to enable him to be more successful in Test cricket.

"He has the desire to improve. He is a very honest character. And when you have someone who is honest and is really driven, you want to stick with them and given them every opportunity. Given the chance to get through this spell and work on his game, I think he will make a success of international cricket."

Whether he will be given that chance remains to be seen. While the England management have generally been good on their promise to give a player "one game too many rather than one game too few," they are keenly aware of the need to bed someone into the side before the Ashes tour. That gives them three Tests against West Indies to find someone. Mark Stoneman must be one candidate, though it won't have helped that he has hardly batted in first team cricket for a month due to the hiatus for T20.

For any casual observer of English cricket - or someone who only watches international cricket - it must seem incredible that Hameed is not already in the Test team. He was deeply impressive in his maiden series in India and it appeared England had found a man who could partner and, one day, take over from Alastair Cook as their rock.

But so grim was his form in county cricket that the England management decided his future would be better preserved taking him out of the firing line for a while. He has yet to register a half-century in the County Championship season so far (he has batted 12 times) and his Lancashire average - 19.45 - is lower than Jimmy Anderson's. He made a century for the 2nd XI against MCC Young Cricketers recently (Shivnarine Chanderpaul made one, too; those MCC YCs have things pretty tough these days) but he will need to score heavily when Championship cricket resumes (briefly) on Sunday if he is to force his way back into consideration ahead of the series against West Indies.

The England management appear desperate for him to give them an excuse to pick him. That was why he was invited to spend time with the team on the first day of this game. They wanted to encourage him and, as Farbrace put it, make him feel he was "back in the fold" and remind him "he's very much part of the future of the England cricket team." They always had every intention of coming back to him. It is not that he has been pushed aside as much as he has been protected. He is only 20, after all.

Judging by his batting in the nets on Friday, Hameed is still some way from recovering the form that so impressed when he came into the side in India. While it might be argued that a series against West Indies - ranked eighth in the world - presents a decent opportunity to recover confidence, that would be to underestimate a talented attack that may contain the likes of Alzarri Joseph, Shannon Gabriel and Kemar Roach. It might also be remembered that the last Test the two sides contested, in Barbados in 2015, was won by West Indies.

And might his presence have added pressure to Jennings? It might. But as Farbrace pointed out, Ben Foakes - who may well make the Ashes tour as England's reserve keeper - and George Garton - who has pace the England management value highly - both trained with the team at The Oval. International sport is viciously competitive.

"If you're in the England team there is always - and there should always be - someone knocking on the door for your place," Farbrace said. "Whether they're here at the ground breathing down your neck or whether they're in county cricket, they're there."

For Jennings on Friday, the competition was more obvious than ever. He desperately needs a significant score in the second innings of this match.