'Going to be an honour...': Jacob Bethell breaks silence on becoming England's captain for upcoming T20I series against Ireland

Jacob Bethell is set to become England's youngest captain in international cricket in the upcoming three-match T20I series against Ireland which will commence from September 17. The 21-year-old will break the record of former England cricketer Monty Bowden, who captained the side at the age of 23. The all-rounder has so far made 13 appearances for the Three Lions in the shortest format.

Bethell, who will take over from Harry Brook as England's T20I captain for the series, is quite eager to make his debut as the side's skipper and stated that it is an honour for him to lead the team at such a young age.

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“Yeah, quite a day. Obviously, finding out is kind of the first emotion that comes is pride. Um, yeah, captain in England is obviously going to be an honour, and I can’t wait to do it. Yeah, definitely. Um, obviously getting picked for England’s always an honour. But yeah, we had a great series against West Indies at the start of this summer," Bethell said on Sky Sports.

Bethell wants to lead the side like Stokes

The 21-year-old further remarked how he has gotten inspired from Ben Stokes' mentality as the skipper and he will be aiming to adopt it while captaining the side against Ireland. He also feels that leading the side as example will be his biggest challenge.

“I think a big thing I’ve noticed with Stokesy is that he leads with actions. He’s always kind of the guy that takes the precedence and takes the situation on himself. So I’ll be looking to do that as much as possible," Bethell stated.

“Obviously, he does it in a bit of a different way with bowling, bowling fast and stuff like that, but I’ll try and be doing that with a bat and ball and in the field as much as possible. But yeah, I think the biggest thing is trying to lead by example," he added.

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Notably, Bethell has only made a total of 29 appearances for England on the international circuit. He has featured the most in T20Is and the least in Tests. He has so far scored 281 runs for the Three Lions in the 13 times he has played for them in the shortest format while also having four wickets under his belt. It will be interesting to see if the youngster manages to lead the side well in the coming assignment against Ireland.

England's squad for T20I series vs Ireland: Jacob Bethell (Captain), 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.