Keaton Jennings and Ben Foakes made an impression for England Lions in Brisbane as England’s head coach Trevor Bayliss and batting coach Mark Ramprakash looked on before heading to Adelaide to prepare for the second Test
Jennings, who has switched from Durham to Lancashire to try to restate his England credentials, scored 89 from 148 balls and shared a second-wicket stand of 144 with Foakes, who like his Surrey team-mate Tom Curran was drafted into the Lions team from England’s Ashes squad in search of match practice.
Foakes, understudy to Jonny Bairstow, whose strange headbutt greeting to Cameron Bancroft has given the Ashes one of its stranger headline stories, shared wicketkeeping duties with Lancashire’s Alex Davies at Allan Border Field as the Queenslanders made 396 for 9 on the first day.
He then stroked 67 from 94 balls, batting at No 3, to continue the excellent batting form that had been a feature of his 2017 county season.
“Obviously I’ve been netting a lot out here so it was nice to get out in the middle, share a stand with Keats and get a few runs,” said Foakes.
“When you come out as back-up keeper you know your game time is going to be limited, but it’s still been special to be out here,” he added.
“We had three days of hard work in Brisbane when I thought we played pretty well, and although it slipped away in the end, hopefully Adelaide will be a good place for us to come back.”
Jennings declared the Lions innings on 250 for five, in the hope of setting up a last-day run chase and there seemed every chance of further batting opportunities as Queensland powered to a lead of 344 at the close with eight wickets remaining.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo