Alastair Cook is in no doubt who should be batting at three for England against India this week, confident that Ollie Pope deserves the place over Jacob Bethell.
England begin their Test series against India at Headingley on Friday, with the weather in Leeds forecast to be brilliant for the five scheduled days.
Although England are not at full strength, due to Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Gus Atkinson all struggling for fitness, the line-up is fairly straight forward to predict, other than at number three.
The 21-year-old Bethell made a fantastic start to his Test career in New Zealand over the winter, scoring 260 runs over three matches and averaging 52.
However, he did not play in the one-off Test against Zimbabwe in May, with Pope returning to number three and scoring 171 in a dominant England victory.
Bethell was absent from that game as he was playing in the IPL, a decision from England that was criticised at the time by Michael Atherton and now Cook lays some blame at the player’s feet, suggesting he should be prioritising Test cricket.
‘He didn’t play in the Zimbabwe Test match for whatever reason and that kind of irks me a little bit for a guy who loves Test cricket,’ Cook told Metrospeaking at the launch of The Overlap and Betfair’s Stick to Cricket.
‘So then Ollie Pope plays. Ollie Pope gets 100, so he plays. That’s how I would go about selection.’
One of England’s all-time greats is not down on Bethell’s talent, but feels he is yet to have seen enough of him to be convinced he deserves a key position in the Test side.
‘I don’t think you can be fully convinced about anyone. Apart from Joe Root or Brian Lara, or somebody like that,’ he said.
‘We’re looking at a 21-year-old. He’s had a really good start to his International career and his franchise career, but without a shadow of a doubt there’s questions about the guy because he’s 21 years old.
‘The one thing I have to take at face value is a lot of people who you respect the opinions of, including Andrew Flintoff, Brendon McCullum, Ben Stokes, Rob Key, Joe Root, say this guy’s the real deal.
‘I’m not that close to Jacob Bethell, I haven’t seen enough of him in certain situations, so you’re taking their opinion on that.’
He added on Stick to Cricket: ‘When I left New Zealand I thought they’ll go with Jacob Bethell but if he isn’t leaving the IPL to come and play a Test match, for whatever reason that it, it’s not a punishment, but that’s the way the cards have fallen whether it’s Bethell’s fault or not.
‘If he’s that desperate to play I would have said he would have come out and played, then he’d have guaranteed his England selection. I don’t care what’s going on behind the scenes on that.’
Cook may have been disappointed by Bethell’s decision to play at the IPL, but he has been impressed by his mentality when on the field.
‘I can only admire the way Bethell’s taken to international cricket,’ he said. ‘He’s certainly one of those players where the occasion doesn’t over-rule him, he looks mentally good.
‘He’s done well to cope with everything, because when he got selected, I thought that’s a hell of a task for him.
‘But he’s played a handful of games. Let’s judge him in two years, three years and if he flies, absolutely fantastic. But I think we’re all allowed to say: “It’s very early days, he’s played three Test matches, got no professional 100s. Let’s just let him develop”.’
England’s manager director Rob Key is relaxed on the call at number three, saying that is a good selection headache to have.
‘I don’t see it as a problem, really. You win either way, really,’ Key told the Telegraph’s cricket podcast.
‘You’ve got two brilliant players that can do that role. Ollie Pope’s been fantastic in that tough spot; he played brilliantly in New Zealand, alright, he was in a different role, but we’ve got two brilliant options in those spots.
‘A tough decision is when you’ve got no options, and you’ve got to just then try and find something from nowhere. That’s when I’m sort of scratching my head. This one is: “Which really good player are we going to pick?” It’s a good position to be in.’
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