Nearly six years ago the 15-year-old Jacob Bethell was given the Gray Nicolls Young Cricketer of the Year award and I sat next to him at lunch after the presentation. I have been aware of his background and looked out for his name since then, though I did not have a good look at him in action until he exploded on to the scene over the past 18 months, culminating in his Test debut last week.
I really like the way he sets up: he looks pretty side-on, seems to have good orthodox basics, presents the full face of the bat, moves forward and back. He scored 10 in his first Test innings but his mentality was right: there was no panic, he gave himself the chance to have a look, and did not seem flustered when he was faced with a string of balls he could not score off.
I and many others have often described Ollie Pope, who normally bats at No 3 for England, as looking a bit frenetic early in his innings, and you could argue that Bethell, at 21 and at his first attempt, looked much more composed.
That contrasts with the way he played in the second innings. Where he had scored 10 off 34 in his first knock, in his second he faced three more deliveries and scored a half-century. I do not know if this was a reaction to the situation, with England facing a very achievable run chase and wanting to get the job done, or whether a message had come from the dressing room: we picked you because you are a brilliant striker of the ball, so show us what you’ve got. The important thing was the result: he made a contribution, he scored 50 and he will now feel he can play at that level.
Sometimes young players approach the game with a wonderful naivety. They are not nervous when they are challenged to go up a level. Instead, they can be oblivious to the pressure and go in with no expectations and little to lose. From a distance it looks like Bethell has been welcomed into the environment and just went in and tried to enjoy the occasion, which is what everyone will have wanted.
The selection of a 21-year-old with so little first-class experience will be criticised by some and there are lots of good reasons to be concerned by it. But you have to accept that Brendon McCullum, Ben Stokes and Rob Key are right there, watching the best players in England day in and day out. They will have taken lots of things into account when selecting him, foremost his character, the way he behaved around the group during the white-ball series against Australia in September and in the Caribbean last month.
You have to trust their judgment, and accept they have seen enough to be confident about throwing him in. He was not the first choice – the plan had been for another very exciting player in Jordan Cox to have a chance, until he was injured in training not long after the team arrived in New Zealand – but they will have seen a lot more of Bethell than most and believe he is ready.
There will be many on the county scene thinking: “I’ve played a few seasons, scored a lot of runs and deserve the opportunity.” Some will be disillusioned that this kid has come in and jumped the queue. For a long time England had a pretty well‑established pecking order – I remember when Jonathan Trott came in for his debut the selectors spoke about him being next in line and earning his chance.
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But equally you could make a strong case that there is one technique needed to succeed in the county game while Tests require another entirely. This might have been less obvious in the 1980s and 90s when a lot of the best bowlers in the world were playing for English counties but these days there are not a lot of people bowling at 90mph in the County Championship. There has always been a step up and that jump is as high as it has ever been.
I would not say Bethell’s selection was wrong, and in time it might come to be seen as inspired, but Key has to be canny with his choices. His task is not just to end up with the best England team but also to encourage those playing in county cricket to keep working on their game. We have seen Jamie Smith perform well for Surrey and be rewarded and it is vitally important that people feel the selectors are watching closely, that there are opportunities there and that being picked for England is not all about someone seeing you bowl on YouTube and plucking you from nowhere.
