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“I remember having two references on my desk – one from Sir Garry Sobers and the other, I can’t remember if it was (Desmond) Haynes or (Gordon) Greenidge, but it was certainly one of them,” laughs Michael Powell.
The former Warwickshire batter was director of cricket at Rugby School when Jacob Bethell’s application arrived on his desk. Unsurprisingly, given the names involved, it didn’t take him long to realize he had someone amazing coming from Barbados. And then he saw him play.
“I’ve known him since he was 11, and maybe I’m a bit old school, but having watched him all that time, I’ve always seen him as a Test player,” Powell says, without no doubt delighted. that the England hierarchy appear to agree with that assessment given Bethell’s Test call-up for the New Zealand tour last week.
“He has fantastic hands. He has a rhythmic swing of the bat, and this is due to him hitting balls in his backyard on the end of a rope for hours and hours. It’s ingrained in him. As soon as I saw it, I thought, “You were born with a bat in your hand, it’s in your blood.”
“He grew up with this great West Indian heritage and wants to emulate (Brian) Lara and co.”
Bethell, who grew up in Barbados before gaining a cricket scholarship at the age of 12, is at the forefront of the next generation of players in this new England era.
Given his versatility with the ball, as well as his skill with the bat in hand, he could be a staple in all formats over the next decade and beyond.
He scored his first international 50 against the West Indies in Antigua on Saturday and looked every moment like the player England have invested so much in, with the third ODI deciding on Wednesday before the start of a five-match T20i series on Saturday.
“Opportunity usually comes first in T20 and white-ball cricket,” says Powell. “England have used this as a way to bleed these players, and one of the main reasons for this is the international calendar. But it doesn’t matter what format he plays in.
“If someone had offered him the chance to play a Test match at Lord’s for England, or a T20 or 50 over match, then he would have said Test match every time. He has idolized Joe Root in the past because he likes the way he goes about his business.
“Root is primarily a Test player, although he is also a brilliant white-ball player. It’s the format he sees as the ultimate challenge.
The player himself had plenty during the early years of his professional career at Edgbaston.
At just 21, Mark Robinson, his manager at Warwickshire, saw the struggles Bethell had to go through to get to this point.
“Being a player like Jacob comes with huge expectations, you can’t escape that,” he says. “We brought him into the T20 team very early (in 2021 and 2022), and he has bombed, to be honest.
“It was his first real taste of failure – everything he had touched before turned to gold. Then we wanted to put him on the red ball side, bowl him for sevens and bowl his fair share of overs, and he had a stress fracture in his back after the first game of the season against Somerset at Taunton.
“In any career, there are small bumps in the road.
“When you can’t get an escape, you’re looking for a score, especially in T20 cricket when you don’t have time to build an innings. We can suffer a little from imposter syndrome, we start to question ourselves.
Powell looked on proudly on Saturday night as Bethell scored 57 from 55 balls, saving anything that strayed off stump and deftly maneuvering the ball between the two as England returned to the three-match series at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium .
He may have worn the Three Lions, but there was a distinct West Indian flavor to some of his shots.
“The first images I saw of him, when we were first looking to get him into rugby, were of this little kid hitting bowlers much bigger than him,” Powell says. “Some of the first images were of these kids running and playing as fast as they could at his head.
“His early introduction to competitive cricket in Barbados meant that he did not receive as many balls as he could return off the front foot onto the ground for four. He had to have the ability to bowl the short ball and bowl square of the wicket – it was either that or go play another sport.
His first chance with England came in shorter formats, and eyebrows were raised in some quarters when he was called up for the Test, having played just 20 first-class matches for Warwickshire. But this is an English team that has a keen sense of the extraordinary.
“Given the way England have approached things, I’m not surprised (by their Test call-up),” Robinson says. “Jacob is someone who impresses everyone he meets. England have had him on their side for a while now, and they know what he is. He has this sense of playfulness, this sense of fun. But he’s also a fantastic professional.
The links between Bethell and Root run deep, with their fathers having played alongside each other for Sheffield Collegiate at a Yorkshire cricket club.
The former will have to do a bit to even come close to some Root’s Test success.
But, just as the then young Yorkshireman was quickly drafted into national service in the winter of 2012, England may have unearthed another gem in Bethell.
The kid from Barbados who has the potential to make it big in all formats.
