England will call up Warwickshire all-rounder Jacob Bethell for their Test tour of New Zealand next month.
Barbados-born Bethell only turned 21 last week and has never scored a professional century. But the former England Under-19 captain is seen as a player of high potential across all formats, and impressed in his maiden white-ball series against Australia last month.
Telegraph Sport understands Bethell has been selected for the New Zealand tour as batting cover to replace Jamie Smith, who is taking paternity leave around the birth of his first child and will miss the trip. Jordan Cox will replace Smith in the starting XI, with Bethell in reserve.
Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, England’s coach and captain, endorsed a settled batting order at the end of a bruising tour of Pakistan, on which they made 823 for seven in the first Test before being befuddled by veteran spinners Noman Ali and Sajid Khan as the series slipped away.
There has been particular focus on the role of Ollie Pope, the vice-captain and No 3 who made 55 runs in five innings, but McCullum backed him on Saturday.
“I have no doubt, and the skipper has no doubt, that our batting group that we’ve now had together for the best part of 18 months is the best that we’ve got,” said McCullum. “We know when Popey gets in he gets big scores. It is not an easy place to bat at No 3. I know Popey will be disappointed with the volume of runs he has got.
“I expect him to bounce back in New Zealand and we will make sure he has the support around him to do so.”
Bethell continues a theme of left-field solutions to England’s Test issues, with Shoaib Bashir and Josh Hull both selected this year despite not making an impression in the County Championship. In 20 matches, the Warwickshire man averages 25, with five half-centuries, mainly batting down the order at No 6. His left-arm spin, which has proved useful in white-ball cricket, has brought just seven wickets at an average of 96.
However, Bethell has ambitions at the top of the order in red-ball cricket and did make 123 from No 3 captaining England Under-19s in Brisbane against their Australian counterparts in February last year. He also looked at home in the international game last month, making some striking contributions from down the order against Australia.
“It’s nice to tick off two of them, but definitely the best one is yet to come – hopefully,” Bethell said of his Test ambitions at the Professional Cricketers’ Association Awards earlier this month. “Test cricket has always been my dream. I know it’s taken a different shape in the last three years but definitely, that’s still my dream: to play Test cricket for England.
“At the minute, I’m still very adaptable in red-ball. I haven’t really found a place where I’ve gone, ‘Right, this feels like home’ in terms of a place in the batting order, but I think that could be anywhere from opening the batting to No 7 – especially with bowling off-spin, I’m hoping that I can get into a team being a genuine all-rounder.”
Bethell is in for a busy winter. This week he is in Antigua with England for their white-ball series against the West Indies. After his maiden Test tour, he will travel to Australia to represent Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League, and is likely to be involved in the England squad for their white-ball tour of India in January and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan that follows.
Article courtesy of
Source link
