{"id":461485,"date":"2026-03-06T22:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T22:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/461485\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T22:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T22:15:11","slug":"jacob-bethell-englands-standout-player-of-a-mixed-winter-offers-hope-for-future-across-all-formats-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/461485\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob Bethell: England’s standout player of a mixed winter offers hope for future across all formats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bethell’s knocks this winter, from Southampton<\/a> to Sydney<\/a> and then a Mumbai semi-final, have shown variety akin to Freddie Mercury’s vocal range.<\/p>\n

His first Test hundred in the fifth Ashes Test was an old-school epic – 154 runs compiled across six hours of batting. <\/p>\n

He clipped and pulled, drove and cut, with shots from the oldest textbook.<\/p>\n

But Bethell’s 105 from 48 balls against India, which kept England’s attempt at a record chase going right to the final over, was more reflective of the modern world. <\/p>\n

It reflected a man with bleached blonde curls who left home in Barbados as a teenager to pursue his dreams in England. A player who was signed up by one of the world’s biggest T20 franchises before his international place was secure.<\/p>\n

“They’re not comparable, really,” Bethell said of his two hundreds.<\/p>\n

“The skills and mental thinking are different but both feelings are pretty good. <\/p>\n

“But both of them have come in losing causes, which is a weird feeling.”<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Bethell cracked a switch hit off Varun Chakravarthy, played a delicate reverse scoop off Hardik Pandya and, with flowing hands and flashing wrists, stroked the ball to all parts.<\/p>\n

He did not deserve to be run out in the final over, face down in the dirt. When he slumped off, even the India supporters rose to their feet to applaud.<\/p>\n

Bethell’s performances have vindicated England’s decision to pluck him from relative obscurity. He had played only 20 first-class matches when given a Test debut in New Zealand in 2024. <\/p>\n

Regarded as calm beyond his years even then, his nerveless mentality and clear thinking were on show yet again in the febrile atmosphere of the Wankhede Stadium. <\/p>\n

Between deliveries he wandered to the leg side to steady himself before reengaging with the task at hand.<\/p>\n

“Some guys like to keep going and keep staying and face the next ball as quick as possible but I like two to five seconds of clarity, give myself a smack on the pad,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bethell’s knocks this winter, from Southampton to Sydney and then a Mumbai semi-final, have shown variety akin to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-461485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}