Former England player Michael Vaughan said that England had made a tactical mistake in playing a rather inexperienced Jacob Bethell in the 5th Test at the Oval against India. England went into the 5th Test with a host of absentees with captain Ben Stokes as well as pacers Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse and ultimately lost the Oval test to India by 6 runs in a thrilling match with the series ending all square at 2-2.
“I felt sorry for him. He’s 21 years of age. I don’t care who you were and Cooky (Alastair Cook) was 21. You’d got probably 4 or 5 first class hundreds by then maybe. Well, you probably got your 1st Test hundred by then. But you’d played a lot of cricket and when you came into the England side, and I know you got called into Nagpur and you went out there straight away and did well but you’d played a lot of cricket so in your body, in your mind, you knew how to bat. you knew your game,” Vaughan said on the Stick to Cricket podcast.
“Jacob Bethell, this summer has faced 67 balls in red ball cricket, he scored 32 runs. And I know they have to have players there for concussion these days so you need a spare batter at the ground in case someone gets it on the head. But surely, if you are trying to develop a young cricketer, you’ve got to give him time to go there and play cricket. So if it does come that he has to play, at least he has had a bit of game time. To throw a kid who’s 21 out at the Oval in front of 27k when the series is on the line on a pitch that is doing plenty against Siraj. I thought it was diabolical. I thought it was unfair on the player,” he added.
‘I felt sorry for him!’ 😤
Michael Vaughan thinks England we’re wrong to select Jacob Bethell for the final test against India 🏏 pic.twitter.com/ymyfrVJFzw
— Stick to Cricket (@StickToCricket) August 7, 2025
Bethell ended up scoring just 5 and 6 runs in the two innings he played at the Oval falling to Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna respectively. England suffered a collapse and lost a match they were in control of as India pulled off a miracle.
Siraj was adjudged man of the match after he picked up 9 wickets, stepping up in the absence of India’s premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah.
