Jacob Bethell’s own assessment of his summer is disarmingly frank. “If I’m honest, I probably should have played slightly more when I wasn’t playing in the Test matches,” he told Sky Sports this week. For once, the 21-year-old left-hander agrees with the chatter swirling around him.
Bethell spent June and July travelling with England as the spare – or reserve – batter during the five-Test series against India. While that brought priceless dressing-room exposure, it limited him to four outings for Warwickshire: three T20 Blast games and a single County Championship appearance. Across those fixtures he faced just 85 deliveries, hardly ideal preparation when he was parachuted into the fifth Test at The Oval and managed scores of six and five.
He could, in theory, have ducked out to play Championship cricket against Sussex and Worcestershire, but he and England’s management decided he would stay put with the Test squad. Reflecting on that call, Bethell conceded he “should have played slightly more”, adding that the experience nonetheless taught him plenty about the rhythms of top-level cricket.
By the time England meet South Africa in next week’s T20Is at Southampton, Bethell will have faced only 387 deliveries in competitive cricket all summer – a dramatic drop from the 1,480 he logged in 2024. Unsurprisingly, columnists and pundits have questioned everything from his late return from the IPL to his non-appearance in the Metro Bank Cup.
“There’s been a little bit of noise but I don’t listen to it much,” Bethell said. He then doubled down on his earlier admission: “I probably should have played slightly more… but that’s something that I’ll take and I’ll learn from.”
Despite limited time in the middle, Bethell did rediscover some touch during last week’s Lord’s ODI, briskly hitting 58 from 40 balls. The knock reminded selectors why they rate him so highly and eased fears that rust had settled permanently on his back-lift.
“Even though I didn’t play much in that Test series, I was around the group for a lot of it, and just to watch a high-octane Test series like that was unbelievable,” he said. “Playing for England is a dream come true and hopefully I can do it for a long time to come.”
A long stint in national colours certainly awaits. Bethell will feature in the South Africa T20Is, then captain an experimental side in Ireland, becoming England’s youngest skipper in any format. A white-ball tour of New Zealand follows, then a place in the Ashes squad as the spare batter, before limited-overs trips to Sri Lanka and India in the build-up to next year’s T20 World Cup.
“Now I’m looking at what I have ahead and there’s a lot of cricket, so that little gap where I didn’t play actually might be quite nice for me,” Bethell argued, suggesting the enforced downtime could yet prove a blessing.
Marcus Trescothick, who will stand in as head coach for the Ireland series, believes the youngster is ready for the responsibility. “He’s got a ‘great opportunity’ to gain captaincy experience at a young age,” Trescothick said. “We’re very clear that he can step into that role and be very comfortable with that. The attention has been outside of our circle. There’s been some media scrutiny… but within our circle that’s never been the case. We manage it accordingly and we’re not going to put anyone in a position that is not suitable to their character or their calibre.”
Balanced or not, scrutiny is unlikely to fade. For Bethell, the simplest answer lies in time at the crease – and, as the calendar now shows, it is finally on the way.
