England Test captain Ben Stokes believes young Bethell has proven why he is rated so highly
Dec 08, 2024
Wellington [New Zealand], December 8 : Test captain Ben Stokes believes young Jacob Bethell has "proved" to a lot of people why he is rated so highly by England management.
The 21-year-old brought thunder down the ground the moment he made his Test debut for England. He hammered an unbeaten 50 to take England past the finishing line in the series opener against New Zealand.
In the second Test, coming at number three, Bethell bettered it with an impressive 96 in the second innings, falling a mere four runs shy of his maiden Test ton for the Three Lions.
With the youngster coming in at number three, Ollie Pope was moved down the order to number six, a spot where he has reinvented himself.
He scored a crucial 77 in the series opener and followed it up with a 66, which held equal importance. Pope has already stressed on returning to the number three spot.
As the top-order conundrum continues to exist, Stokes sang verses of Bethell's praise and backed their decision to throw him into the top-order mix despite the youngster's lack of experience.
"I know there was a bit made of Beth batting at three with his inexperience and the lack of first-class cricket batting up the top of the order. But me and Baz (head coach Brendon McCullum) don't think like that. You've got a young lad with so much potential and so much talent, why not let him go out there and expose himself to Test cricket at its toughest," Stokes said, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
"As a young lad, I was devastated for him to not get that three figures. But I walked in, and I said to him, "It's only four runs, isn't it?" And his response was, "Yeah, but it would have been flair if I smacked that through the covers to bring it up." Class. I think he's proved a lot to a lot of people and proved why we rate him so highly," he added.
With the series done and dusted in England's favour with a 2-0 lead, the visiting party will turn up to play the final Test of the series against New Zealand in Hamilton on December 14.
