Category: Cricket

Jacob Bethell’s pure talent puts him in high demand, but Shoaib Bashir is the real freelancer in cricket’s deeply confusing world

Bruised skies, sun through clouds, dualism, life in death. Welcome to the bloom of another England Test Match summer, the summer, this time around, of Bethell and Bashir. But of Bethell first because he’s the easy bit.

The battle for Jacob Bethell is of course just beginning. Everyone wants a piece of England’s most thrillingly talented young cricketer. The broadcasters are frothing. The papers want to know whose shirts he wears. Actually the papers don’t really care. Maybe the Daily Telegraph wants to know this at a push. But Bethell is still kind of perfect right now, a future-bomb, all promise and new things, in a sport that is always desperate for these.

• Fast bowler back in second XI action for Sussex

• Woakes, Carse and Overton named in first-Test squad

Jofra Archer is being primed to make a comeback in the second Test against India at Edgbaston – his first appearance in whites for four years – with England’s stable of fast bowlers under strain before the start of this summer’s marquee series.

Naming a 14-man squad for the first Test at Headingley that starts on 20 June, Luke Wright, who is part of the selection panel, confirmed Gus Atkinson is ruled out with a hamstring injury. In come Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse and Jamie Overton, likewise Jacob Bethell to offer competition among the batting spots.

White-ball captain brought fresh impetus against West Indies as he tries to ‘get a little bit funky’

It is just three games, one series, played at home against one of the few major teams ranked even lower than them. But if it would be unwise to get carried away with England’s clean sweep of West Indies there was no mistaking what we witnessed along the way: green shoots, tender and fragile but undeniable, desperately needed signs of renewal after a period of atrophy. The genesis of a new team, under fresh leadership, with fresh emphases and impetus.

It has been overdue. From the miseries of the last World Cup to the indignity of the Champions Trophy this year, England’s recent 50‑over record is dire. Between the start of that World Cup and this summer they played 26 games and won seven, along the way playing bilateral series against West Indies, Australia, West Indies again and India and losing them all.

England talisman’s majestic innings against West Indies shows he still has worlds he wants to conquer

The winning moment is perfect. Perfect in concept, in balance, in execution, in placement, in flourish. The ball disappears through mid-on, and before it has even reached the boundary the lid is off and the smile is unsheathed, and for some reason it matters a great deal that the stroke to complete a towering one-day chase of 309 is not a wallop or a swipe, but an artful on-drive for four.

But then for all his brilliance, there has always been a pleasingly jarring quality to Root in limited‑overs cricket, even a kind of quiet defiance. His match‑winning 166 against the West Indies on Sunday was perhaps his greatest white-ball innings, but above all it was simply a Joe Root innings, all gentle nudges and classical drives, timing over power, manoeuvrability over muscularity, a triumph of pure talent.