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• BBC
• Thu May 29 2025

There are a few reasons why Jacob Bethell might not have been playing for England in the first one-day international against West Indies at Edgbaston.

First, and most obviously, the boy born in Barbados could have quite easily been in maroon instead of royal blue, in the away dressing room rather than on his home ground for Warwickshire.

He might have remained at the rescheduled Indian Premier League (IPL), his Royal Challengers Bengaluru side marching to the final some 4,000 miles away in Chandigarh. Virat Kohli and all that.

In a short international career, the 21-year-old has regularly made waves. Once again he showed why he is a cause of so much hype. Bethell's 82 from 53 balls does nothing to quieten the debate around his inclusion in the Test team.

This was the left-hander's England comeback, a first home appearance since impressing in his debut Test series in New Zealand, a first international since a hamstring injury ruled him out of the Champions Trophy. It says much about Bethell's growing stature that he was so badly missed in such an awful campaign.