Following the announcement of 21-year-old Jacob Bethell as England’s stand-in T20I captain for their tour of Ireland next month, Mark Butcher has questioned the decision as ‘difficult to explain’. England named their squads for their white-ball series’ against South Africa and Ireland last week, the latter of which will be led by Jacob Bethell.
The squad which will travel to Malahide will be missing key all-format personal, including full-time captain Harry Brook, who have been rested ahead of flying to Australia for the Ashes. Jacob Bethell will become the youngest player to captain England in any format, taking the record over from Monty Bowden, who first captained the side at the age of 23 in 1889.
Jacob Bethell appointed as England’s white ball skipper for Ireland T20Is.
England have named Jacob Bethell as captain for the upcoming T20I series against Ireland. Following Jos Buttler’s removal from the role, Harry Brook was initially appointed as captain but has been rested for the Ireland tour. In Brook’s absence, Jacob Bethell will take charge of a squad that includes several senior players, including Buttler himself, along with Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, and Liam Dawson.
With that, Jacob Bethell will also become the youngest ever cricketer to lead England in international cricket. The 21-year-old Jacob Bethell has played 13 T20I matches for the national team, scoring 281 runs at a strike rate of 154.39. The youngster also has four wickets to his name in the shortest format of the game.
The England Cricket Board (ECB) on Friday (August 15) appointed Jacob Bethell as the T20I captain for the three-match series against Ireland. An all-format player since his debut, Bethell will lead the team in place of Harry Brook. The England white-ball captain will take a break after the South Africa series.
Jacob Bethell is poised to become England’s youngest international men’s cricket captain after the 21-year-old was named on Friday as the skipper for next month’s T20 international series in Ireland. The talented Warwickshire all-rounder is viewed as one of the rising stars of English cricket, despite having yet to score his first professional century in any format.
Jacob Bethell has been appointed to lead England in a three-match T20 series against Ireland in Dublin, which will be part of the team’s preparations for next year’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. If all goes according to plan, he will set a record as England’s youngest men’s captain in an international match, surpassing Monty Bowden, who was 23 years and 144 days old when he led England in a Test against South Africa at Cape Town in the 1888/89 season.
Jacob Bethell has played in just four Test matches but has become a regular in white-ball cricket with 13 Twenty20 appearances and 12 one-day internationals since making his T20 debut in September last year. Following his appointment , Former English batter now commentator Mark Butcher has raised questions regarding Bethell’s rise to the captaincy.
Mark Butcher doubts Jacob Bethell’s appointment as England’s T20I skipper for Ireland series
Former cricketer Mark Butcher believes Jacob Bethell’s promotion to the temporary captaincy position for the three T20Is against Ireland is “hard to explain” and shows a “lack of respect” to the hosts.
With Bethell at the helm, England will travel to Dublin for the white-ball affair, which is slated to begin on September 17. During the tour, England will miss its high-profile players, including designated captain Harry Brook, who has been rested for the high-stakes rivalry against Australia in the upcoming Ashes.
In Brook’s absence, Bethell was handed the captaincy mantle, making him the youngest to lead England in an international fixture at the age of 21, taking Monty Bowden’s record, who served as the skipper at the age of 23 in 1889.
With just 29 international appearances under Bethell’s belt, Butcher struggled to digest the young all-rounder’s surge in the pecking order.
“It’s one of those ones that’s quite difficult to explain, even to people like me, let alone people who have a passing interest in England’s cricket teams. And therefore I don’t really know what to make of it,” Butcher said while speaking on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast.
“He’s played next to no cricket all summer. He’s 21 and he’s had an entire English summer where he has been fit and has played little to no cricket of any meaning whatsoever, and here he is as England’s youngest ever captain,” Butcher added.
Bethell announced himself to the world during his Test debut in New Zealand. With his swashbuckling performances at number three, before being involved in England’s white-ball campaign and then opening alongside Virat Kohli in the Royal Challengers Bengaluru maiden IPL-winning campaign.
He had to sit out of England’s lone Test against Zimbabwe due to an injury and only returned to the final XI for the fifth Test against India as captain Ben Stokes was forced to the sidelines, courtesy of a shoulder problem.
“Whether or not it was necessary for him to miss yet more red-ball cricket and captain the England side in Ireland, and quite frankly they’ve stripped out all the main players from that series anyway, with notable exceptions like Jordan Cox and Liam Livingstone – who only recently captained an England white-ball team on a tour of the West Indies,” Butcher said.
“So, was it necessary for Jacob Bethell to take on this role and play in those games in the absence of more meaningful cricket, giving what’s coming up with the Ashes? I think there’s a very strong argument that that is absolutely the case yes,” he added.
In his unscathing verdict, Butcher feels England’s selection for the tour shows a lack of respect for Ireland and their cricket.
“It shows a bit of a lack of respect for them [Ireland] and their cricket. We’re not in the business of making people feel good about themselves, but it also says, ‘this is a bit of a throwaway three matches that no one is really that interested in and we’ll do what we jolly well like and not be too worried about whatever the consequences might be,” Butcher said.
England Squad For Ireland T20Is : Jacob Bethell (c), Rehan Ahmed, Sonny Baker, Tom Banton, Jos Buttler, Liam Dawson, Tom Hartley, Will Jacks, Saqib Mahmood, Jamie Overton, Matthew Potts, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Luke Wood.
Jacob Bethell has an experience of only 13 T20Is, where he has scored 281 runs and taken 4 wickets. He has played in the Indian Premier League as well, for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Jacob Bethell will create history and break England’s 136-year-old record when he makes his captaincy debut against Ireland. He will lead the two-time T20 World Champions in three T20Is to be played on September 17, 19 and 21 in Dublin.
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