Jacob Bethell walked out at the MCG for his first taste of the Ashes pressure, and he didn’t pretend it was just another day at the office. Instead, the 22-year-old credited an unlikely rehearsal: a short, noisy IPL cameo with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru that, he says, made big crowds feel familiar.
England’s four-wicket win in the Boxing Day Test ended a long wait for a Test victory in Australia, and Bethell’s 40 in the chase of 175 was the kind of hold-your-nerve innings that doesn’t show up properly in a highlights package. When he spoke afterwards, though, the story was less about technique and stroke making, and more about surviving the noise in your head.
Bethell’s RCB experience
Jacob Bethell said the Chinnaswamy experience helped him arrive in Melbourne with more belief, because he’d already had to breathe through that franchise-cauldron intensity. The line that summed it up: “50,000, which felt like 100,000 at the Chinnaswamy.”
He also underlined that it wasn’t about the quantity of games, but the quality of the occasion. “In the IPL, I only played two games,” he said, adding that those moments still showed him what he could draw from himself when an atmosphere is trying to swallow you whole.
At the MCG, that mattered in front of a huge crowd and a series narrative that can turn every lack of performance into judgment. England still needed 110 when he arrived, and Australia’s quicks were hunting that one spell that cracks a chase open. Bethell’s boundaries were timely, but the bigger win was the temperament: small decisions, repeated, until the target was within reach.
Bethell also sounded like someone who wants the job at number three in Test cricket. “I like three,” he said, framing first-drop as a role that can be survival in one scenario and an opportunity in another.
And while England’s top order remains a moving puzzle, his personal ambition was refreshingly uncomplicated. “I would like to just nail down any role in the team,” He said, effectively, pick me, trust me, and let me keep learning kind of an attitude.
For now, he is the rare young batter who can talk about atmosphere without sounding like he is reading from a sports-psych manual, because, in his telling, it’s not theory. It is a Chinnaswamy roar, carried to the MCG, and turned into something usable.
Sydney is next, but Bethell’s takeaway is simple: crowd or occasion, he now knows how to breathe.
