Even after scoring a hundred, Jacob Bethell isn’t doing his job

3 minute read

Jacob Bethell finally scored his first professional hundred and did so in fine style. He’s still not doing his job in England’s one-day team though, because he’s being picked as half an all-rounder.

Even at this early juncture, it feels like there isn’t a right lot to say about Bethell’s batting. We reckon it probably only takes two pull shots to make an onlooker feel like there’s something very worthwhile there: one to catch your attention and the second just to confirm you saw the first one correctly.

Throw in the lofted straight drives and off-spankings and most conclude that the unavoidably protracted accumulation of experience is now the main thing slowing Bethell’s rate of progress.

So things are all well and good as a batter. It’s just that Jacob Bethell is not a batter. He is – as we said in the opening paragraph – half an all-rounder.

Jacksob Bethwill

Because England’s fifth bowler in ODI cricket is still that cross-your-fingers, maybe-we-can-make-up-the-difference-elsewhere combo of Bethell and Will Jacks.

As part of this policy, Jacks has been given a new number seven role this summer. It’s an awkward spot where you often walk out to bat with very few balls remaining or at the tail-end of a colossal disaster that’s already almost fully unfurled. He’s therefore done very well to average 38.25, scoring at 117.69 runs per 100 balls.

At the same time, taking stock now that ODIs are done with for the home season, we can confidently state that Will Jacks and Jacob Bethell have been absolutely terrible.

It was back in May that England overhauled their side and decided that the two of them would together comprise their fifth bowler. Since then, they’ve together taken 4-274 and conceded on average 8.93 runs an over. The only other England bowlers to have conceded more than a run a ball in this period have been Matt Potts (6.29), Brydon Carse (6.36) and Sonny Baker (10.85 from that one horror match).

This is despite neither of them making it into the firing line whenever England have been really good or tremendously bad.

For example, Bethell only needed to bowl 2.4 overs and Jacks none at all when England made 400 against the West Indies at the end of May, while the ‘complete’ performance that resulted in the world record victory over South Africa by 342 runs was in fact rather incomplete, because England only needed four bowlers to dismiss the tourists for 72 (and really they could have easily got by without fourth bowler Jamie Overton’s 0-8 off two overs).

Similarly, neither man was required to remove his cap for Baker’s debut because England only needed four bowlers to lose the match. (Although again, Baker probably could have got the job done single-handed, had he been permitted to bowl from both ends.)

Maybe England’s policy revolves around trying to win or lose every game within 40 overs in the field. A grand ambition to be sure, but there have of course been matches where this hasn’t happened and in these matches Bethell and Jacks have given runs away like cooking apples in September.

Most conspicuously, the two of them conceded over a third of the runs – 122 out of 330 – in the second ODI against South Africa when England fell five runs short.

Both men batted pretty well in that match. Batting is not the problem.