England have retained Ollie Pope at No 3 for the first Test against India at Trent Bridge, meaning there is no place for Jacob Bethell.
Pope, the vice-captain, has been under pressure for his place from 21-year-old Bethell since the tour of New Zealand in December, but has been backed by England’s management at the start of an epic run of 10 Test matches against India and Australia.
Pope and Jacob Bethell chat during a net session at Headingley on Wednesday – Getty Images/ Gareth Copley
There are two changes from the team who beat Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge last month, with Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse coming in for Sam Cook and the injured Gus Atkinson. Rounding out the attack are Josh Tongue, spinner Shoaib Bashir and all-rounder Ben Stokes.
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Bethell stepped in at No 3 in New Zealand and performed well, showing composure in compiling three half centuries, all in the second innings. He played because wicketkeeper Jamie Smith was on paternity leave, and his mooted replacement Jordan Cox succumbed to a finger injury, leading to a reshuffle that moved Pope down to No 6 to take the gloves and Bethell drafted in at first drop.
Pope performed impressively until an ugly dismissal – attempting a reverse-ramp – contributed to England going down in flames in the third Test, with the series already won.
Bethell had looked a class act – as he has when playing for England’s white-ball teams this summer – but still does not have a senior professional hundred to his name. It seems likely that Bethell will be released back to his county, Warwickshire, in order to play his first County Championship game of the season on Sunday, against Somerset at Edgbaston. This presents an opportunity to post three figures for the first time.
The selection puzzle was complicated by Bethell’s selection for the Indian Premier League with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, leaving him unavailable for the one-off Test against Zimbabwe in May. Pope, back at No 3, duly followed openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett in making a century in that game. That shored up his spot, especially as captain Ben Stokes launched a staunch defence of his vice-captain following a misunderstanding with the media, who he accused of having an “agenda” against Pope.
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Pope has done well at No 3 since being moved there by Stokes and Brendon McCullum in 2022, averaging more than 40. In all he has eight Test hundreds, although only one of them has come against India (a remarkable knock at Hyderabad last year) or Australia, against whom he averages 15.7.
Atkinson was with the squad at Headingley as he looks to prove his fitness for the second Test at Edgbaston in a fortnight’s time. Also in contention for that game is Jofra Archer, who will play a County Championship match for the first time in four years this weekend, for Sussex at Durham. England’s selectors will be watching with bated breath, but insiders believe that both Atkinson and Archer are more likely to be available for the third Test at Edgbaston than the second.
India’s selection picture is becoming clearer, too. Jasprit Bumrah, the world’s premier fast bowler, has declared that he is only likely to play three of the five Tests in the series to manage his fitness. One of those, though, will definitely be at Headingley, where the new captain Shubman Gill will bat No 4 and vice-captain Rishabh Pant at No 5.
Gill is under extreme pressure as he replaces Rohit Sharma as the Test captain, and fills the No 4 position, which has been held by great players Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar for almost 35 years.
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Wicketkeeper Pant, who was nearly killed in a car crash in December 2022, said he was breathing a sigh of relief that James Anderson and Stuart Broad are no longer in the England attack, and promised to get after greenhorn spinner Shoaib Bashir.
“It definitely feels so good when both of them [Broad and Anderson] are not there,” Pant said. “They have been there for England for so many years, but they have enough ammunition as a bowling line-up. We don’t want to take anyone lightly, because our team also is young.
“Depending on the match situation, obviously [attack the spinner]. It’s always good to put pressure, not just on the spinner but the fast bowlers.”
England XI to play India
 1.⁠ ⁠Zak Crawley
 2.⁠ ⁠Ben Duckett
 3.⁠ ⁠Ollie Pope
 4.⁠ ⁠Joe Root
 5.⁠ ⁠Harry Brook
 6.⁠ ⁠Ben Stokes (capt)
 7.⁠ ⁠Jamie Smith (wk)
 8.⁠ ⁠Chris Woakes
 9.⁠ ⁠Brydon Carse
10.⁠ ⁠Josh Tongue
11.⁠ ⁠Shoaib Bashir
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