And so it begins, the Great Debate: no, not who will be deputy leader of the Labour party but the infinitely more important – and certainly more interesting – matter of who will be trudging out at No. 3 to bat for England in the first Ashes Test at Perth, which is now ominously close. Almost as close as the moment the first bars of Slade’s ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ starts plinking round the supermarket.
For some, the choice of Ollie Pope or Jacob Bethell is like saying whether you’d rather be buried or cremated. And sure, the days of Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell and the great Nasser Hussain might be long gone. But No. 3 could be the key position in these Ashes. The England hierarchy has shielded Bethell and protected Pope, who has the knack of whacking a big hundred and then not many.
These Australians were one of the great sides but are now reaching the end of days. Pretty soon Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon will be heading for the commentary box. Steve Smith, once the best batsman in the world, is not even the best in the team any more. The first Test is crucial: if Australia lose, then the cracks that are already there – top order batting, for example – could open real fissures. You wouldn’t want to be a fledgling Aussie opener facing an ultra-high-speed artist like Jofra Archer.
And so to No. 3: Bethell is an exceptional strokemaker. He may be more of a swinger than Pope, and you wouldn’t back either to bat out half a day for a draw. But both players show just how far Test cricket has come.
Would you want to go back to the old grinding days? The great Aussie opener Bob Simpson, who died last month, batted 743 balls for his 311 at Old Trafford in 1964 – a strike rate of 41.77. Perhaps England’s greatest No. 3, Ken Barrington, scored nearly 7,000 runs in 82 Tests but was hardly a livewire at the crease. Against a weak Kiwi team in 1965, he took an hour to get off the mark and nearly two days to make 137. In the current England set-up, both Harry Brook and Jamie Smith have scored 80-ball Test hundreds.
Bethell’s sensational 76-ball century at the weekend, even in a dead one-day rubber against a weary South African side, thrust the 21-year-old’s questionable brilliance right back into the Ashes debate. He made his Test debut at No. 3 against New Zealand, where he scored an unbeaten 50 off 37 balls to lead England to an easy eight-wicket victory.
Perth will be hot and dry and fast, with a bunch of hostile Aussies wanting to give the England team some stick
But Perth isn’t going to be anything like that. It will be hot and dry and fast, with a bunch of hostile Aussies wanting to give this unfeasibly youthful-looking Englishman some stick – ‘G’day mate, does your nanny know you’re here?’ But Bethell went to Rugby School on a sports scholarship at the age of 12, where he should have picked up plenty of tips on how to deal with a sledging Aussie.
There might not be the certainty of the England No. 3 as there once was (Ted Dexter anyone?). But we are where we are. Will the England management team of Rob Key, Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes have the nerve – and the ruthlessness – to sacrifice their vice-captain, the always amiable Pope, in favour of the relatively untried Bethell? I hope so. The Ashes could depend on it.
In our ceaseless quest to hail the unsung heroes of British sport, salutations to the 78 doughty souls from Truro who were willing to make the mammoth 880-mile round trip to Carlisle for their National League fixture. An astounding journey, with doubtless its share of Ginsters’ best, especially as it ended in a 3-0 defeat in what you might call the cathedral city derby. But it was a record trip for a football league game, so well done you Tinners.
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