Wicketkeeper Jordan Cox has been ruled out of England’s series in New Zealand with a broken thumb, opening the door for exciting 21-year-old Jacob Bethell to make his debut in Thursday’s opening Test.
Uncapped Cox, who had to play in place of Jamie Smith who is missing the series on paternity leave, hurt his right thumb in the Queenstown nets before the final day of England’s warm-up match against a New Zealand Prime Minister’s XI.
Ollie Pope will keep the wicket, but there will be a lot of interest in the left-handed Bethell, who excited the English management during the white-ball tour of the Caribbean.
It’s not just his bleach blonde hairdo that made him stand out during his first three months as an England cricketer. His personality has made him a crucial member of the one-day team overnight.
As his teammate Phil Salt said after the first of his two half-centuries in the Twenty20 series in the West Indies: ‘He’s a 21-year-old boy, but if you didn’t know his age you’d think he’d had 100 matches played.’
He finished the series with a strike rate of 173.97, the best among the six players to score 100 runs.
Jacob Bethell hopes to make his test debut for England as a replacement for the injured Jordan Cox
Cox has been ruled out of the England series due to a broken thumb injury he suffered last week
Bethell made his T20 debut on September 11 this year and his ODI debut just eight days later
Bethell is a chameleon cricketer, adapting seamlessly to new environments and challenges and making the kind of impact that suggests, contrary to the statistical evidence to date, he will also be successful in Test cricket.
He is the latest Bazball bolter as a player, with a first-class average of 25 and no professional century.
Kevin Pietersen had 21 four-day hundreds when he made his Test debut in the 2005 Ashes, but selectors are now trading in different currencies and no longer relying on traditional apprenticeships on the provincial circuit.
“All the attributes are there,” Marcus Trescothick, England’s acting white-ball head coach, said after the West Indies tour. “If you have markers to say, ‘Okay, you have to do this, this and this,’ he would be knocking on the door for that.
“There is no reason why he cannot succeed in the Test team as he has thrived in both white-ball formats.
“It will be exciting to see him go in there and see what he can do because you could almost see him breaking through as the next youngster after Harry Brook, the really exciting one coming through.”
Like Brook, Bethell has overcome technical challenges with his batting. In the early stages of 2024, his head fell to the offside, resulting in him playing wide balls that he didn’t need to play and missing straight ones.
He took meticulous notes on all aspects of his cricket and worked his way through the issue, rearranging his position and scoring four half-centuries in last summer’s County Championship before bursting into life after the Vitality Blast.
England will call up a replacement for Cox, who will be their second option at wicketkeeper
He’s an instinctive player with Brian Lara-esque hands that rush through deliveries, pierce holes or clear the ropes with precision.
To observe his percussion means to recognize the old and the new. He appears on a one-man crusade to make the late cut fashionable again, but is equally at home as a modern 360-degree player, deftly scooping over the wicketkeeper’s head or clubbing over the midwicket boundary off the front foot or the back .
Already a fielder who can match anyone in the country at the back point, and a developing left-arm spinner, Bethell’s ability to use his hand for anything adds to his appeal.
In the long term, he considers himself a top-order batsman, having spent his school years as an opener, the position from which he crashed a 42-ball 88 for England Under-19s against South Africa in the 2022 World Cup.
He has the skill, character and ambition to succeed in the Test team now that he has his chance and could make life uncomfortable for current Test-owning Zak Crawley and Pope in the not too distant future.
Pope has previously kept the wicket for England, once in New Zealand in 2019 and for two Tests in Pakistan in 2022. He took the gloves on the second day of the warm-up match in Queenstown.
England will call up a replacement for Cox. Salt played for England in white-ball cricket, while Durham’s Ollie Robinson impressed in the Championship. Somerset’s James Rew, 20, is exciting and plays for England Lions in South Africa.
Olly Stone was England’s best bowler on the second and final day in Queenstown, with figures of three for 53.
Chasing 201 to win with little time left, England almost achieved a remarkable victory. Joe Root hit 82 not out from 54 balls and Ben Stokes 59 from 39, but England fell five short of their target at 196 for 9 from 22 overs at stumps.