Published : 31 Dec 2025, 12:54 AM
Updated : 21 Aug 2026, 02:57 PM
Jacob Bethell was not supposed to be England's headline act in the fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground but he looked like a player who belonged when the tourists made their nervous chase for victory against Australia.
Replacing the dropped Ollie Pope at number three, 22-year-old Bethell had appeared on a hiding to nothing in Melbourne on a difficult pitch in front of a record crowd of 94,000.
His debut Ashes innings on Boxing Day, the biggest occasion in Australia's cricket calendar, was no fairytale, producing one run from five balls and a caught-behind dismissal off Australia's fifth-choice seamer Michael Neser.
