by Moments after the applause at England’s meeting at Hagley Oval heralded Jacob Bethell’s impending Test debut at No. 3, the sound system they use to keep the pace of training sessions going began to play Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler. Even for a leadership group that loves punts, this seems the biggest yet.
Bowlers can explode with little from their back catalogue; bolters bred on the basis of raw materials. England have had a few in their recent past, such as Shoaib Bashir – first-class bowling average of 67 when called up – or Rehan Ahmed, a five-fer on his Test debut at the age of 18 years. Pat Cummins is an Australian example, with nine Shield wickets. at 46 when he first donned his Baggy Green in 2011.
Related: England to give Jacob Bethell Test debut at No. 3 in New Zealand opener
But batters are generally expected to have tasted triple figures in a first-class match before getting the nod, with Mike Gatting the last England batter not to have done so before his debut during a tour of Pakistan in 1978, aged 20. not a resounding success, lbw for five arms shouldered to a googly and lbw for six to a full draw. Not that his career – even with the long wait for a maiden Test century – was insignificant.
Warwickshire’s Bethell, 21, averages 25.44 across 20 first-class matches (including one on loan at Gloucestershire), has passed 50 five times with a highest score of 93 last summer. The number four is the first to appear and even then only twice. On paper, that barely qualifies him to take drinks to the person carrying the drinks in a Test match, let alone head to the middle at the first drop.
But cricket is not played on paper and England see something special in a left-hander with strong back foot play and a Ben Stokes-style drive who bowls with his left arm and is a whippet on the field. They are not the first. There has long been an almost universal opinion in the game that it is destined for the top. Ian Bell once called him the best 17-year-old he had ever seen; Brian Lara saw Bethell when he was 11 and said he was “way better” than he was at that age.
This latter endorsement came while Bethell was still in his native Barbados; a cricket-mad rascal whose grandfather Arthur had played first-class cricket for the island and whose father, Graham, played for Sheffield Collegiate in the United Kingdom (the club synonymous with Joe Root’s family). Ollie Hannon-Dalby, one of his Warwickshire teammates, remembers visiting Barbados as a senior professional on an academy tour and being surprised.
“We were at Wanderers Cricket Club and the outfield was so bumpy. Our guys couldn’t get their hands on it during field drills,” says Hannon-Dalby. “But this 13-year-old came up to us and was scrambling, picking it up with one hand and throwing it in.” I remember him shrugging, “What’s going on with you boys?” It’s always like that here. It was an early sign of his hand-eye coordination and confidence.
“He invited us to his family home for a meal. Outside they have a cricket ball in a sock hanging from a very high beam on a three or four meter rope, so a huge arc when it swings. Our guys could hit him three or four times before they blew it, but he kept going and kept going. He just never failed.
“Not only that, his dad kept shouting out random positions on the field and Jacob just went with what he was told, even though the ball kept coming back from different angles. It was so difficult and quite crazy to watch.
A scholarship to the Rugby School followed, Bethell consulting Sir Garfield Sobers, a family friend, before accepting this transatlantic offer. Training with Warwickshire for two hours every day before school, he signed his first senior contract in 2021, aged 17. After impressing for England in the Under-19 World Cup that winter, he landed a £30,000 contract at the Welsh Fire in the Hundred. .
The rise has been accelerated even further this year, with a strong T20 Blast campaign leading to England’s ODI and T20 debuts and a £256,000 contract at the Indian Premier League auction on Monday. There have been flashes of talent in an England jersey: 20 runs against Adam Zampa in September, two T20i half-centuries on his return to the Caribbean this month.
“He’s just one of those guys,” Hannon-Dalby says. “A cool cat, quietly confident, funny but also seriously hungry and hardworking. He has already made two international debuts, has just completed an IPL contract and is about to play Test cricket. He’ll probably end up marrying a Bond Girl.
This is the type of prediction that seems to follow Bethell, the prodigy without a professional hundred about whom there is still no doubt.
