Former England cricketer Michael Vaughan has expressed sympathy for 21-year-old Jacob Bethell and criticized England’s decision to play him in the final Test of the recent series against India at The Oval. The young batter managed only 11 runs across two innings and failed to make an impact.
Speaking on the Stick to Cricket podcast, Vaughan explained why he felt sorry for Bethell and questioned the timing of his inclusion in such a high-stakes game.
“I felt sorry for him. He’s 21 years of age. I don’t care who you were and Cooky (Alastair Cook) was 21. You’d got probably 4 or 5 first-class hundreds by then maybe. Well, you probably got your 1st Test hundred by then. But you’d played a lot of cricket and when you came into the England side, and I know you got called into Nagpur and you went out there straight away and did well, but you’d played a lot of cricket so in your body, in your mind, you knew how to bat. You knew your game,” Vaughan said.
He further questioned how prepared Bethell was, given his lack of red-ball experience this season.
“Jacob Bethell, this summer has faced 67 balls in red-ball cricket, he scored 32 runs. And I know they have to have players there for concussion these days so you need a spare batter at the ground in case someone gets it on the head. But surely, if you are trying to develop a young cricketer, you’ve got to give him time to go there and play cricket. So if it does come that he has to play, at least he has had a bit of game time.”
Vaughan was especially critical of throwing Bethell into the pressure cooker of a must-win Test match in front of a packed Oval crowd.
“To throw a kid who’s 21 out at the Oval in front of 27k when the series is on the line on a pitch that is doing plenty against Siraj. I thought it was diabolical. I thought it was unfair on the player,” he concluded.
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