This England regime has never lacked for courage when it comes to selection, but even so the message from Ben Stokes that Jacob Bethell, who has yet to score a century in professional cricket and is at present away at the IPL, would be a part of the Test side for next month’s major series against India was striking.
For a start, it brooked no argument: unless an injury to one of the frontline batsmen creates an unexpected vacancy, someone in the team taking on Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge — and Ollie Pope looks like the prime candidate — will have to make way, regardless of how they fare in the next few days against the weakest team England have faced in a Test in living memory.
But it also confirmed that, in the space of a few months, Bethell has upended the old pecking order. Remember, he only made his debut in New Zealand last November because of an injury to Jordan Cox, having originally not even been in the squad.
• England vs Zimbabwe Test: live score and updates from day two
As much as the 260 runs he scored in that series, always batting at No3 and never going in later than the fifth over, what impressed was the way he shaped technically and the coolness he exuded mentally in a position that has found out many fine players over the years. Hence Stokes’s admiration.
It is rare for a nascent England batsman to act as disruptor in this way. Under the old conventions, a promising youngster would be made to wait, serving time in county cricket until an opportunity presented itself.
Perhaps the last time someone pushed himself to the front of the queue in this way was Kevin Pietersen in 2005 on the back of a run of spectacular performances in white-ball cricket. Pietersen was picked for the Ashes series that summer at the expense of Graham Thorpe, a veteran with 100 caps.
Bethell’s credentials do not rest solely on his three Tests; he scored six half-centuries in the space of seven weeks for England across all formats late last year, having struck 44 against Australia in his second game, a T20, at Cardiff last September. This month he made a sparkling 55 for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL. In short, he looks comfortable on the big stage.
Which brings us to Pope, because the man who is still officially Test vice-captain and was in charge for four matches last year when Stokes was injured has never quite looked at ease against the very strongest sides. He averages 15.7 in five Tests against Australia and 24.6 in 13 Tests against India, which includes an innings of 196 in Hyderabad in January 2024.
When Stokes took over as captain in 2022, Pope was identified, and backed, as England’s No3, and since then he has averaged 40 in that position with six centuries, but he has been highly inconsistent, with more single-figure scores (17) than fifties and hundreds (15).
After Cox’s injury in New Zealand, Pope was asked to take over the gloves and moved from No3 to No6 as a consequence. The way he batted for half-centuries in the two games England won confirmed a long-standing impression that he is more at ease lower down the order.
Pope’s supporters may argue: who isn’t? They may also ask: what about Zak Crawley, who averages 30.51 in Tests compared with Pope’s 34.02, has not hit a hundred in 15 Tests and was made a mug of by Matt Henry in New Zealand? But as an opener Crawley is more vulnerable to a challenge from, say, Durham’s Ben McKinney than Bethell.
The other option, in certain circumstances, may be to leave out Shoaib Bashir and go with deeper batting and an all-seam attack supported by the occasional spin of Joe Root and Bethell. England, we know, have asked Bethell to work on his left-arm spin while at the IPL.
Not every bright young thing lives up to the superstar status predicted for them. When Haseeb Hameed shone in his early Tests for England in 2016 it was widely claimed that he would play 100 Tests. In fact, he did not reappear for five years — and then only briefly.
Stokes and Brendon McCullum have been known to go all-in on the same number at roulette and lose. But right now that does not seem likely with Bethell.
Bethell will regain England spot for India series
Jacob Bethell will regain his place in the Test team when England play India starting next month, Ben Stokes has confirmed (Elizabeth Ammon writes).
The Warwickshire all-rounder will miss the one-off Test against Zimbabwe, which begins on Thursday, having been given permission by England to play in the IPL instead. But after making a strong start to his Test career during the series against New Zealand last December, he will come straight back into the side, meaning one of the present top order is likely to lose their place.
• England vs Zimbabwe Test day one: live scores from Trent Bridge
“The series that Jacob had out in New Zealand, obviously he’s going to be back in the UK for that India series — so I think if you put two and two together, you probably know what’s going to happen,” Stokes, the England Test captain, said.
For the moment Ollie Pope, who is under some pressure for his place, remains England’s vice-captain.
Stokes confirmed that he is back to full fitness after surgery on his left hamstring in January. Having not played a match this year, however, Stokes will carefully manage how much he bowls in the four-day Test against Zimbabwe.
“I’ve obviously been training a lot over the past two months. I’ve got myself back as close as I possibly can to match intensity but understandably this will be my first game in a while,” Stokes said. “There is a big gap in intensity between training and matches. Getting back out into the battle of playing and that kind of stuff is something I have to be mindful of.
“I’ve done everything I can to bowl overs, but I’ve got to be mindful of where I am and build myself back up to proper match workload for later on in the summer.”
England’s plans for the return of Jofra Archer to the Test team have been dealt a blow after the fast bowler was ruled out of the one-day international series against West Indies — which starts next week — with ligament damage to his right thumb. He will be reassessed over the next fortnight but there is no set date for his return to action. The injury could rule him out of playing for England Lions against India A in mid-June, which had been part of the plan for the 30-year-old to begin his return to red-ball cricket for the first time since February 2021.
England had planned to try to get Archer back into the Test arena in Australia and they were hoping he would play a part at the end of the India series in July, but the latest injury makes that less likely. There are limited opportunities for Archer to play first-class cricket for Sussex because the County Championship takes a break next week for the T20 Blast, although he could still feature for them in September if England decide they would prefer him to play in the County Championship rather than the limited-overs series against South Africa.
Stokes was speaking before what will be a defining year under his leadership, with two marquee series, against India this summer and the Ashes at the end of the year. He wants England to be “dominant” — saying he prefers that word to “ruthless” — and echoed the comments of his head coach, Brendon McCullum, about wanting players to be a bit smarter about their public utterances.
“We are in the public eye as a group, the things you say there are going to [affect] the perception of us as a team, and I can totally understand why there was that annoyance and potentially frustration from people towards that, but it’s something we’ve nipped in the bud, we’ve spoken about it as a team and it’s something we’re going to be more conscious about. We explained to the group that some of things that we do say aren’t meant for outside stuff, they are for the dressing room.
“I want this team to dominate series, dominate days, dominate every session — everything is aimed towards winning and hopefully it becomes very clear to our fans and everyone that everything we do is about winning.”
Stokes also revealed that he telephoned the spinner Shoaib Bashir to give him reassurance after the 21-year-old was sent out on loan to Glamorgan by his home club, Somerset, after a very difficult start to the county season in which he has taken only two wickets in three matches at 152 a piece.
“It’s such a tricky one with Bashir, I rang him a while ago and said, ‘Look I know it can be tough when you’re contracted to a club and you’re an England spinner and then you’re getting loaned out.’ It’s obviously not ideal but I said, ‘If you take where you were last year, you weren’t even playing.’ He’s in a much better place coming into this summer than he was last summer.”
Chris Woakes will play for England Lions against India A next month to gain some match fitness after an ankle injury delayed his start to the summer. The spin-bowling brothers Rehan, 20, and Farhan Ahmed, 17, are also selected in the same England representative side for the first time. Jordan Cox will play in the second of the two four-day matches after an abdominal injury ruled him out of the Test against Zimbabwe. James Rew will captain the Lions, who will be coached by Andrew Flintoff, whose 17-year-old all-rounder son, Rocky, has been named in the 15-man squad. Stokes could also play in one of the two fixtures to get more overs under his belt before the India series but said he would make a decision after the Zimbabwe Test.
