Michael Vaughan has criticised England’s “diabolical” decision to pick young batter Jacob Bethell in the fifth Test of their drawn series against India.
Bethell, considering one of the most promising talents in world cricket, barely played this summer as he travelled around with the England squad as a back-up batter. The 21-year-old was eventually thrown into the action in the fifth and final Test after Ben Stokes suffered a shoulder injury, replacing the captain at No 6, but scored 11 runs across the two innings and looked tentative throughout.
Head coach Brendon McCullum defended the decision – made jointly with Stokes, ECB director Rob Key and selector Luke Wright – to include Bethell in the squad when he could have spent time playing for Warwickshire, insisting it was beneficial to be part of the England setup even when he wasn’t playing.
But Vaughan said Bethell needed to play more cricket and build his red-ball experience.
“I felt sorry for him,” the former England captain said, speaking on The Overlap and Betfair’s Stick to Cricket show alongside Phil Tuffnell, David Lloyd and Alastair Cook. “He’s 21 years of age. I don’t care who you are; when Cooky was 21 you’d have got probably four or five first-class hundreds by then. You’d probably got your first Test hundred by then, but you played a lot of cricket.
“Jacob Bethell this summer has faced 67 balls in red-ball cricket, he’s scored 32 runs. I know you have to have players there for concussion nowadays, so you need a spare batter at the ground in case someone gets hit on the head. But surely, if you’re trying to develop a young cricketer, you’ve got to give him time to go and play cricket; so if it does come that he has to play, at least he’s had a bit of game time.
“To throw a kid, who's 21, out at the Oval in front of 27,000 when the series is on the line on a pitch which is doing plenty, against Siraj – I thought it was diabolical. I thought that it was unfair on the player.”
England’s attacking “Bazball” approach under McCullum has brought widespread praise for reinvigorating Test cricket, but there has also been criticism for the way selection policy has shifted, with less emphasis on a steady climb through the ranks and more players fast-tracked into the side.
“If you go back a year ago, against Sri Lanka at The Oval, they picked Josh Hull from nowhere – they just threw him out of County Cricket, Leicestershire to play for England,” Vaughan added. “The week before, Matt Potts had bowled great against Sri Lanka at Lord’s, and didn’t play at The Oval. So, they do get some tactical things wrong, this England team.
“I’d have gone for Rehan Ahmed, who’s in great form for Leicestershire, or you could have easily played Liam Dawson. Liam Dawson has got 18 first-class centuries, and Jamie Smith could have batted six. So, you had two options there, but you throw a kid in who just doesn’t play cricket. I think it was unreasonable to expect a player to perform under that pressure with no cricket.”
England’s next Test series will be the Ashes in Australia, which begins at Perth’s Optus Stadium in November.
