Jacob Bethell admits he 'probably should have played more' this summer

Jacob Bethell has admitted he "should have played slightly more" domestic cricket while he was England's spare batter during their Test series against India.

Bethell, 21, played only four matches - three in the T20 Blast, one in the County Championship - between the start of the Test series in June and his call-up for the fifth Test at The Oval, which began on July 31. He faced only 85 balls across those matches, and looked noticeably short of rhythm when scoring 6 and 5 during England's narrow defeat after Ben Stokes was ruled out through injury.

Specifically, he could have played some role in Warwickshire's Championship fixtures against Sussex (which overlapped with the second Test against India) or Worcestershire (which clashed with the fourth), but decided in conjunction with England's management that he should stay with the Test squad instead.

Ahead of Sunday's ODI in Southampton, Bethell had only faced 387 balls across the English summer, compared to 1,480 in the 2024 season. His lack of cricket has been discussed incessantly in the media in recent months, with suggestions he should have returned from the IPL early, or played for Warwickshire in the Metro Bank Cup instead of the Hundred.

"There's been a little bit of noise but I don't listen to it much," Bethell told Sky Sports. "If I'm honest, I probably should have played slightly more when I wasn't playing in the Test matches, but that's something that I'll take and I'll learn from that.

"Even though I didn't play much in that Test series, I was around the group for a lot of it, and just to watch a high-octane Test series like that was unbelievable. I got a chance in the last Test and unfortunately couldn't go on there and put in a performance, but I've loved [the summer]. Playing for England is a dream come true and hopefully I can do it for a long time to come."

Bethell will play in England's T20Is against South Africa next week before becoming their youngest-ever captain in Ireland a week later. He is then likely to be part of their white-ball tour to New Zealand, before travelling to Australia as the spare batter for the Ashes, and heading to Sri Lanka then India for a white-ball series leading into the T20 World Cup.

"Now I'm looking at what I have ahead and there's a lot of cricket, so that little gap where I didn't play actually might be quite nice for me," Bethell said.

Marcus Trescothick, who will deputise as England coach in Ireland, said on Saturday that Bethell had a "great opportunity" to gain captaincy experience at a young age.

"We're very clear that he can step into that role and be very comfortable with that," Trescothick said. "The attention has been outside of our circle. There's been some media scrutiny around him playing and doing this job [captaincy], but within our circle that's never been the case. We manage it accordingly and we're not going to put anyone in a position that is not suitable to their character or their calibre."