Former England captain Michael Vaughan believes that England made a tactical mistake in playing a rather inexperienced Jacob Bethell in the 5th Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025 at the Oval against India.
England featured with four changes in the final and fifth Test against India, where Bethell, who has played only four Test matches, was brought in to replace the injured skipper Ben Stokes.
“I felt sorry for him. He’s 21 years of age. I don’t care who you were and Cooky (Alastair Cook) was 21. You’d got probably 4 or 5 first class hundreds by then, maybe. Well, you probably got your 1st Test hundred by then. But you’d played a lot of cricket and when you came into the England side, and I know you got called into Nagpur and you went out there straight away and did well but you’d played a lot of cricket so in your body, in your mind, you knew how to bat. you knew your game,” Vaughan said on the Stick to Cricket podcast.
Vaughan reckons that developing a young cricketer requires giving him enough time and opportunities to play and gain experience. That way, if he's called upon, he’s at least had some game time under his belt. He criticised the decision to throw Bethell into the deep end at The Oval, in front of 27,000 fans, with the series on the line and the pitch offering plenty of assistance, especially against a bowler like Siraj.
ALSO READ: Cricket Australia announces ODI and multiday matches squad against India: Check details
"Jacob Bethell, this summer has faced 67 balls in red ball cricket, he scored 32 runs. And I know they have to have players there for concussion these days so you need a spare batter at the ground in case someone gets it on the head. But surely, if you are trying to develop a young cricketer, you’ve got to give him time to go there and play cricket. So if it does come that he has to play, at least he has had a bit of game time. To throw a kid who’s 21 out at the Oval in front of 27k when the series is on the line on a pitch that is doing plenty against Siraj. I thought it was diabolical. I thought it was unfair on the player,” he added.
Bethell failed to perform as he ended up scoring 5 and 6 runs in the two innings he played at the Oval, losing wickets to Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna, respectively.