NO-ONE at Durham could have seen this coming a year ago. For the second successive winter Keaton Jennings had returned to South Africa to continue his accountancy studies wondering where his next run was coming from.

He ended the 2014 season with four ducks in five innings, and ten runs in the other, then in 2015 he was dropped for the last six championship matches after another lean run.

There was never any doubt that he had the ability, temperament and dedication to succeed. But he was probably afflicted by what golfers call paralysis by analysis as he put too much pressure on himself.

When repeatedly asked what had brought about the transformation last summer he invariably referred to the time he spent talking to his uncle Ken, a sports psychologist.

He had learnt to accept failure and worked out a better work/life balance, making him more relaxed. While he would never blame the pitches, the fact that he had served a tough apprenticeship at Riverside also stood him in good stead.

On the improved surfaces, he began last season with a century in both innings at home to Somerset. He had begun the previous season with 177 not out against Durham University and struggled thereafter. This time he never looked back.

This remarkable blossoming was sustained until the season's end and while he became the country's leading run-scorer in the championship perhaps his most amazing innings came in the NatWest T20 Blast final.

His 88 was the highest score in an English Twenty20 final and it came from a player who, on the odd occasion he was selected in one-day cricket the previous season, batted as low as nine or ten.

The fact that he was handed some T20 appearances in 2015 offers another clue to his rapid development. He had been seen as a stodgy four-day opener, but he harboured a fierce desire to play all forms of the game.

He worked on the sort of variations which made Paul Collingwood a successful T20 bowler, and developed a range of one-day strokes. He became so adept at the reverse sweep that he was able to play it with confidence to reach his hundred yesterday.

Some might have thought it audacious, but Jennings is a pragmatist, not a cavalier. There was no slogging it that T20 final. There may have been calculated risks, but he made his runs through powerful, authentic strokes, having been given the chance to open following Phil Mustard's departure.

While Ben Duckett and Jos Buttler are one-day specialists trying to adapt to the longer form, Jennings has learnt the art of crease occupation before branching out into the shot-making which has propelled him to the highest level.

In that respect he may have nosed ahead of Haseeb Hameed. Having searched for some time for an opening partner for Alastair Cook, England now have a choice between two of the most polite and dedicated young men in the game.

There could be room for both, and while one century doesn't make an Indian summer don't be surprised if people soon start talking about Jennings as a future England captain.