For England’s Test tour to New Zealand next month, the selectors have chosen batting all-rounder Jacob Bethell of Warwickshire to replace Jamie Smith, who will be out for the entire trip due to paternity leave.
With a match-winning 44 from 24 balls in the second Twenty20 International in Cardiff, Bethell, who turned 21 earlier this week, made a strong impression in his white-ball début against Australia in September. He hasn’t yet reached a first-class century, though, and has only participated in 20 County Championship games during his career.
The sole alteration to the 16-man team that lost the series 2-1 in Pakistan last week is the addition of Bethell. Before the Caribbean white-ball team selected him, Jordan Cox was an unutilized batting reserve. He will now make his Test debut as a wicketkeeper, replacing Smith.
The most recent example of England’s shift away from conventional selection criteria like batting and bowling averages and shown experience and toward players they believe have a high “ceiling” is Bethell’s induction. These recent selections feature the spin duo of Rehan Ahmed and Shoaib Bashir, who both remain on the squad for the New Zealand trip, and Josh Hull, a 20-year-old seamer from Leicestershire who debuted against Sri Lanka in the summer.
Speaking at last month’s PCA Awards in London, where Smith defeated him for the Young Player of the Year award, Bethell outlined his goals to play all forms for England while maintaining that a Test call-up was still his ultimate goal.
“It’s good to cross off two of them [ODIs and T20Is], but maybe the greatest one is still to come. Playing Test cricket for England has always been my desire, and even though it has changed over the past three years, it is still my dream.
Bethell stated that he is “still finding that out” in terms of his prospective position in the Test team due to his lack of first-class experience, but he hopes that his second string as a left-arm spinner has improved his credentials in all circumstances.
After hitting a career-high 93 against Nottinghamshire in April while batting at No. 6, he stated, “I definitely made my role clearer this year in the white-ball stuff, but I think at the moment I’m still very adaptable in red-ball.”
In terms of batting order, I haven’t really found a spot where I’ve said, ‘Well, this seems like home.'” However, I believe that could be anywhere from starting the batting to batting No. 7. I’m aiming to join a squad as a true all-rounder, especially with my offspin bowling. Therefore, it doesn’t really matter where it is in the batting order; what matters is simply getting into that squad.”
The series will start on Thursday, November 28 at Hagley Oval in Christchurch. The following two Test matches will be on December 6 in Wellington and December 14 in Hamilton.
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