Bethell's arrival a silver lining amid England's Ashes gloom

Before this week, Jacob Bethell had scored two centuries against grown men. His first came in a county second XI game for Warwickshire in April 2022 when he was 18. The second came in September in a bilateral ODI against South Africa.

He came close in Wellington little more than a year ago, nicking off for 96 against New Zealand in Wellington. So it would follow that he might have the jitters as Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland thundered in to him while he was one shot away from his maiden Test – and first-class – hundred, right?

"Not really, to be honest," said Bethell. "It was always coming."

The 22-year-old later admitted to some nerves during his 39-ball wait in the 90s. Yet that statement from this remarkably confident batter indeed married up with what had transpired a couple of hours earlier.

Bethell was still 21 runs away when he resumed batting after the tea break on day four. After a crisp cover drive for four off Michael Neser, the left-hander flashed another through the off-side for a single to move England into the lead in this Test. An overthrow that deflected off the non-striker's stumps that went for another four moved him into the 90s. When he slapped Neser again to the rope, this time through the on-side, Bethell was one shot away from glory.  

Australia called their big guns in. Scott Boland made him play and miss twice in four balls. Undeterred, Bethell retained the strike for Mitchell Starc's return to the bowling crease. Two more singles to deep men took him to 99. After Harry Brook got him back on strike, Starc whizzed two bouncers past his ears, the first clocked at 145kph, the next at 144kph. Earlier, on 27, Bethell had smiled when Cameron Green badged him with equally vicious lifter.

Gloucestershire's second XI attack certainly had not bowled any of those to him.

Bethell faced another three dots from Boland before Brook blocks out a maiden from Starc. It's coming up to 45 minutes since he had gotten to within four of this milestone. Finally, there's a let-up. Beau Webster comes on to bowl off-breaks at Boland's end.

Bethell blocks two balls before charging and pumping him over mid-on. The sixth-gamer is reserved as he acknowledges the crowd and his parents who are in tears. Brook looks like he wants the moment to go on longer than the man himself.

"I was quite happy when they brought spin on rather than Boland. I was a bit nervous around him," Bethell said at stumps having finished the day unbeaten on 142 and holding England's narrow victory hopes heading into the final day of their tour.

"(Boland) just lands it there and he's pretty hard to score off, especially when they bring the field up. So when they brought the spinner on, I was pretty comfortable to take him over the top. But there was a few nerves there.

"Clearly they were trying to get me to have a nervous feel outside off-stump when I was close to a hundred. But I was pretty switched on to that. I didn't want to fall into that trap.

"Starcy bowling a couple bouncers as well (was) pretty canny. But I managed to not fall for any of them."

Bethell's composure – shown through a 340-minute knock, longer than any other non-Joe Root England innings on this tour – franked the extraordinary faith this England side has placed in him.

His journey to the SCG is like no other and, depending on how you view the rapidly changing cricket landscape, offers either a cautionary tale or an instructional blueprint of the best pathway to the top for a prodigy.

Born and raised in Barbados, a former Warwickshire captain spotted him playing a junior match against a touring English schoolboy team and then put the wheels in motion for his scholarship to the prestigious Rugby school, around 45 minutes from Birmingham in the UK's midlands.

Bethell zoomed through county and England age-group sides, making his international debut in a T20I series against Australia in September 2024, besting Adam Zampa in a match-winning hand in Cardiff.

"For a lad that's 20 years old to take down one of the best bowlers in white-ball cricket over the last two years just shows what he's got," white-ball teammate Liam Livingstone said of the knock. "As an England fan over the next 10 or 15 years, I think we've got an incredible talent on our hands."

Still, Brendon McCullum had to assure the media his selection for a Test debut two months later in New Zealand was not one made "to wind people up". By then, he had played 20 first-class games, averaging 25 with no hundreds.

But the cat was out of the bag and Bethell was pulled in all sorts of different directions. To the KFC Big Bash League for eight games last summer. To India for four more white-ball games for England, followed by a two-month Indian Premier League stint in which he played only twice and missed a Test he might have otherwise been picked for against Zimbabwe. Back to the UK where he returned as England's spare batter and was largely shielded from county cricket through an epic series against India, playing only the final Test when Ben Stokes was injured.

Still, with the out-of-sorts Ollie Pope preferred at No.3 to begin the Ashes, Bethell did not play when the Ashes were on the line. "I think it was actually a blessing," Bethell said of riding the pine for the first six weeks of England’s tour.

"I actually wasn't batting that well at the start of the series. I then played some cricket over here, I played that Lions game (against Australia A in Brisbane, making 19 and 71). Throughout the month and a half before playing, I felt my batting was in a better spot.

"So it was actually quite nice timing. No one likes to sit on the sidelines. I was chomping at the bit to get going but I think the timing was pretty good."

Bethell is the first specialist England batter to have his maiden first-class hundred also be his maiden Test hundred. That ODI ton against South Africa last year also marked his maiden List A hundred, another feat never previously achieved by an England player. Who knows what more firsts await him.

2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men's Ashes

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Third Test: Australia won by 82 runs

Fourth Test: England won by four wickets

Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10am AEDT

Australia squad (fifth Test): Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Matthew Fisher, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue