England's assistant coach Paul Farbrace has backed opening batsman Keaton Jennings to make the grade in international cricket despite his difficulties in the series against South Africa.
England have struggled to find a regular opening partner for Alastair Cook and had hoped the left-hander could be the answer after his century on debut last year in India.
But Jennings has failed to make a half-century in the home series against the Proteas with some experts questioning his technique.
Farbrace says the 25-year-old has the right attitude to battle through and make the changes he needs.
"Test cricket is a harsh world to come into. The one thing you would expect every player to have (is) guts - determination, the desire to improve and get better," said Farbrace.
"We thought in the second innings at The Oval, he showed real application (scoring 48) and he really applied himself and got stuck in. Again today, he started showing glimpses of someone who has made adjustments."
But Farbrace noted that Jennings had not had the time to go away and work on areas of his game that might need improvement.
"There is a lot said about players being found out at international level. He found out a lot about himself in these last few Test matches.
"And there are areas of his game that he would want to work on but there hasn't been time to take a step back and perhaps work at things he would like to work on and enable him to be more successful in Test cricket," Farbrace said.
Jennings made 17 on the opening day of the fourth and final Test at Old Trafford before an unconvincing stroke edged a simple catch to keeper Quinton de Kock off Duanne Olivier.
Farbrace, though, says the batsman has the right attitude to survive his difficulties.
"The one thing we would judge him on is his character, his personality to cope with the last few weeks," he said.
"I have to say he is a very honest young man who works extremely hard at his game and, given the chance to get through this spell and work at his game, I think he will make a success at international cricket."
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