Jacob Bethell believes he can be the man to solve England’s top-order troubles ahead of next year’s 50-over World Cup.
The identity of Ben Duckett’s opening partner in ODIs has changed several times in the past 18 months, with Phil Salt, Jamie Smith, Zak Crawley and Rehan Ahmed getting a chance to stake their claim.
That Salt, Smith and Crawley are not even in the squad to face India in the one-day series later this month tells its own story, while Ahmed’s brief elevation was only ever a short-term option in Sri Lankan conditions.
England are now looking to Bethell to fill the gap. The 22-year-old is an increasingly influential figure across all formats, batting at number three in Test cricket and scoring a match-winning 76 not out at number four in Saturday’s T20 victory over India at Emirates Old Trafford.
And he now feels ready to add another string to his bow.
“Yeah, definitely. I’m looking forward to batting up there with Ducky,” he said.
“Every time I’ve batted with him and we’ve had a partnership, we bounce really well off each other in terms of the way where we score. I know we are both left-handers but we score in pretty different areas, so I think if we can get that going it will be a really strong partnership.
“I’ve never opened the batting in 50-over cricket but I can take different aspects – a bit from my red-ball game, a bit from the T20s – and hopefully mould it into quite a good template.”
Before he makes the move up the order, Bethell has three more chances to help England seal a series win over the world’s number one T20 side. With the Test side out of form and in flux following Ben Stokes’ retirement, and the ODI side a disappointing eighth in the International Cricket Council rankings, it would be a timely shot of good news for the men’s team.
And Bethell, who stole the show with his perfectly-paced chase in Manchester, wants to become a player who can be relied upon on a regular basis.
“I’d definitely like to be more consistent,” he said.
“Every game I play, I learn a lot about the opposition and myself. Every game I try to take it in as a building block into the next one.
“I’m striving to be a consistent match-winner. You might not always have the 80 not out or the big scores, but in T20 cricket a lot of cameos can actually win your games even if they don’t get the headlines, so I’m definitely looking to do that.”
