Marcus Trescothick is confident Jacob Bethell can succeed in Test cricket and believes it is only a matter of time before the youngster breaks into the England team.
Bethell has impressed since being drafted into the white-ball squads at the end of the summer, hitting 20 from five balls against Australian player Adam Zampa and amassing three fifties in the Caribbean.
The 21-year-old has little time to reflect on a dizzying past few months after surprisingly being selected as batting cover for three New Zealand Tests, starting on November 28 in Christchurch.
Despite averaging a modest 25.44 from 20 first-class outings, Trescothick has no doubt Bethell would thrive if given a chance against the Black Caps, comparing his aptitude at the highest level to all-format star Harry Brook for England who sit third in the world test batting rankings.
“All the attributes are there,” Trescothick said. “If you had benchmarks to be able to go, ‘Okay, you need to do this, this and this,’ he would knock on the door for that.
“Obviously he is now next in line on this next trip. There’s no reason why he can’t break through and succeed, as he’s flourished in both (white ball) formats we’ve seen in recent times.
“If he got an opportunity there, it would be exciting to see him go there and see what he can do.
“You could almost see him breaking through as the next kid after Harry Brook, the most exciting one to come on the next journey they’re going to take.”
Trescothick will join Bethell in New Zealand to return to his day job as Test assistant to Brendon McCullum following the end of his tenure as interim white-ball head coach.
The former England opener won one of his four series in charge – a 3-1 T20 victory over the West Indies in the Caribbean last week – after being tasked with overseeing the white-ball reset before McCullum unified the roles of coach in the new. year.
While Bethell took center stage, Dan Mousley, John Turner and Jamie Overton also showed promise, Liam Livingstone breathed new life into his career, as did Saqib Mahmood after successive stress fractures to his back compromised its availability in 2022 and 2023.
“Of course the balance is you always want to win at the end of the day, so you approach every game trying to win it,” Trescothick said. “But I think we have greater depth now.
“The most important thing was to get the players involved, expose them to pressure environments when some of your best players are not there, and see if they will be good enough.”
Fast bowler Jofra Archer got three more ODIs and three T20s under his belt against the West Indies and a return to Test play in mid-2025 remains on track.
“We would like him to come back for every cricket match you might play, including Test matches,” Trescothick said. “He’s world class and he would fit in with any team England play.
“That just won’t be possible at this time. We’re just going to continue to monitor him and stay focused on where we’re going with him and hopefully get the most out of him.
Meanwhile, England’s white-ball coaching structure is in limbo after it was announced that assistants Carl Hopkinson and Richard Dawson had left their roles before McCullum took charge.
“I think we have an idea of what it’s going to look like – that hasn’t been confirmed yet,” added Trescothick, who recently admitted he would like to be England head coach one day.