Jacob Bethell: England's standout player of a mixed winter offers hope for future across all formats

There have been few undeniable successes as the dust settles on England's winter.

Will Jacks, maybe, given his role in the run to the semi-final of the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

Josh Tongue? He was England's standout bowler in the Ashes, though only played one Test while the series was alive.

There is no doubt about one, however.

Jacob Bethell's sensational century against India in Mumbai on Thursday may have come in a losing cause but it only confirmed the 22-year-old is England's future.

At the start of September he did not have a century in any form of professional cricket but now he has three, one in each of the formats and all of them at international level.

His captain Harry Brook completed the set with his hundred against Pakistan in the Super 8s phase, while Dawid Malan and Jos Buttler are the other Englishmen to have done it before.

Bethell is the youngest to get there by a distance.

"Me and Brooky were joking about who was going to be the first to get all three between us," Bethell said.

"He was like 'You're batting at three so it's got to be you' and then took my spot at three and did it.

"Both of us can sit back and be very proud of ourselves but at the end of the day his came in a winning cause and mine in a losing cause.

"He'll always have that up on me but it's been special."

Bethell's knocks this winter, from Southampton to Sydney and then a Mumbai semi-final, have shown variety akin to Freddie Mercury's vocal range.

His first Test hundred in the fifth Ashes Test was an old-school epic - 154 runs compiled across six hours of batting.

He clipped and pulled, drove and cut, with shots from the oldest textbook.

But Bethell's 105 from 48 balls against India, which kept England's attempt at a record chase going right to the final over, was more reflective of the modern world.

It reflected a man with bleached blonde curls who left home in Barbados as a teenager to pursue his dreams in England. A player who was signed up by one of the world's biggest T20 franchises before his international place was secure.

"They're not comparable, really," Bethell said of his two hundreds.

"The skills and mental thinking are different but both feelings are pretty good.

"But both of them have come in losing causes, which is a weird feeling."

On Thursday, Bethell cracked a switch hit off Varun Chakravarthy, played a delicate reverse scoop off Hardik Pandya and, with flowing hands and flashing wrists, stroked the ball to all parts.

He did not deserve to be run out in the final over, face down in the dirt. When he slumped off, even the India supporters rose to their feet to applaud.

Bethell's performances have vindicated England's decision to pluck him from relative obscurity. He had played only 20 first-class matches when given a Test debut in New Zealand in 2024.

Regarded as calm beyond his years even then, his nerveless mentality and clear thinking were on show yet again in the febrile atmosphere of the Wankhede Stadium.

Between deliveries he wandered to the leg side to steady himself before reengaging with the task at hand.

"Some guys like to keep going and keep staying and face the next ball as quick as possible but I like two to five seconds of clarity, give myself a smack on the pad," he said.

When England will leave India is still not entirely clear given the situation in the Middle East, but all being well Bethell will return to Barbados for little more than a week.

After that he will return to the sub-continent for his second stint with Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League.

"My game's evolved a lot over the past six or seven months and I'll look to take that further," Bethell said.

"It's been a nice winter, performances we'd have liked a bit more, but got to keep coming back."

He began the Ashes outside of England's XI but there is no doubt he will be at number three when they play next, against New Zealand in the first Test of the English summer.

This has been Bethell's breakout winter. Don't stop him now...

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