Would he get in?!

GerryShedd wrote:

A bit of a rant by George Dobell in The Cricketer, arguing that Jacob should be back with Warwickshire scoring runs in county matches which at the moment would benefit his career much more than playing one-day cricket for England.

He's referred to England as seeing themselves as the '19th county', i.e. their players are their players, which he uses in a derogatory way and I think that's fair.

The problem is, he is playing so infrequently that if he does play and it'd one-day games, he has to get on with it and has no time to build an innings. With the gaps between games as well, he is never going to get form anywhere. Where would we fit him into the CC side and I don't really think it's fair to drop anyone just to put an England player in the team. I would definitely not take him to Australia and he needs a whole season of county cricket, too many players now are playing too little amount of cricket, frequent cricket keeps you fresh and if you hit good form, you develop the knack of knowing your game inside out.

Hopefully he goes on strike 😱

Ideally, if not playing for England, a winter spent playing domestic cricket in Aus or New Zealand would be of the most benefit too him. Probably New Zealand would be best as he'd have the change to mplay more often, and even get to play some first class cricket, similar to Jonathan Trott in his winter there. Alternately, a winder in the West Indies would give him time with his family and good cricket.

NZ's a good a shout, I remember Woakes playing some first class cricket out there before he got into the Test side.

The lad just needs red ball runs under his belt, a run of games and a run of scores if a anything just to make himself feel better about the whole thing and get some confidence. That game he played for us v Somerset in late June, he looked alarmingly bad, and we all know how it's gone since.

He'll be knocking around these T20 leagues though if not in England squads.

We could plagiarise Philip Larkin's famous poem about mums and dads and modify it to:
"They f*ck you up, those franchise leagues.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they have
And throw in some extra just for you."

This is all getting a bit highbrow for this site. Having said that, I was reading a little bit of Wilfred Owen yesterday. Get us 'eh!

I see Jacob has gone for 21 off his 2 overs this afternoon. He's not good enough to bowl for England yet IMHO. Really, really hope this summer doesn't set him back as feel he's been very messed around by the national team to the detriment of his proper development as a potential international all rounder.

I feel like he gets whacked almost everytime he bowls in all 3 formats.

Needs to be playing for Warwickshire

England management looking to ruin him

He's no bowler but he's a great chance of tonnin up here...

Laces a wide on to backward point 58 (40), played well to be fair.

The innings with the bat seems to have redeemed that profligacy with the ball, seems most commentators recognise the balance of the side is a bit off rather than Bethell (and Jacks) underperforming with the ball.

With regards Dobell's piece, I can't get access but it was a while ago. I mentioned it in a slightly different context but he too is assuming Bethell's main focus is as a test player and I'm not sure that's how England see it. Since Stokes' temper tantrum about the media "misunderstanding" him about Bethell going straight back in as test number three earlier in the summer I don't think anyone at England have pushed him as predominantly a test player. He filled in when Stokes got injured, sure, but if England are getting him to concentrate on white ball for the next period of time, last night's performance and the Ireland captaincy is some sort of plan in progress.

Having said that, I really don't know. Expect him in the Ashes party as cover for 3-6 I'm sure is incoming.