The twenty-year-old shares a room in Warwickshire with Dan Mousley, another new kid from England. The greatest danger to their otherwise strong friendship is this.
“It seems like I have a loud snore,” Bethell remarks.
“I had to decide whether to get out of the room or take care of anything.
“Now I tape my mouth shut every time I share a room.”
As they prepare for the future, England’s roster to play Australia this month includes five uncapped players, including 23-year-old Mousley and Bethell.
When England won the World Cup in 2019, Bethell was still enrolled in school and was being driven from Warwickshire to Yorkshire to make his debut on the county’s second team at the age of fifteen.
He now has to take some of those World Cup champions’ places.
I wasn’t able to see much of it,” he remembers. “It’s been peculiar.
I remember thinking to myself during the first few training sessions, “Jeez, there are a lot of eyes on you—and a lot of eyes that have played a lot of cricket.”
As the most recent Barbados-born and bred cricket player for England, Bethell’s journey to this point has been a compelling narrative.
His father, Graham, was a talented player for the island’s young teams, while his grandpa, Arthur, was a first-class cricketer for Barbados.
When Bethell was twelve years old, he transferred to Rugby School on a cricket scholarship after his potential was seen as a young child in the Caribbean.
