Bethell averages nine in the first innings and 73 in the second – this is why

It is a remarkable statistic, easily explained. Jacob Bethell averages 8.75 in the first innings of Tests against 72.5 in his second innings.

Yes, it is a small sample size, but there is also the obvious explanation – that Bethell has gone into all of his eight Tests almost completely out of red-ball form and has, naturally enough, failed at first. But he is a quick learner who, having processed all the information assimilated during the match, has cracked on in his second innings.

Bethell is a once-in-a-decade if not once-in-a-generation talent. The proof is that he has passed 500 Test runs for England on the back of very little red-ball cricket. Bethell is in his sixth season, and eighth Test, while the rest of his red-ball career consists of just 29 first-class games.

Many have been called upon to bat at No 3 for England, but few have accomplished it for long. Bethell was thrown in at No 3 for his Test debut in New Zealand, after Jordan Cox had been injured on the eve of the opening Test, and he took to it more swimmingly than ducks to water, having batted in that position at school in Barbados but never at senior level.

Bethell is learning on the job so rapidly that we do not make allowances. He has all the makings of a great batsman – the cricket brain (he is England’s youngest Twenty20 captain), the footwork and balance – without ever having been given a run of games in which to bat. He has been warming benches and carrying drinks when, had he appeared before the T20 era, he would have already enjoyed several seasons – of batting and bowling – for Warwickshire.

In the Oval Test against India last summer, Bethell was thrown in to replace Ben Stokes, who had been injured when over-bowling himself in the previous Test at Old Trafford. The number of County Championship games that Bethell had played for Warwickshire that season to prepare for that deciding Test? One. He was so out of nick that he scored six and five; England lost by six runs.

On the last Ashes tour Bethell was given a couple of practice games but did not represent England in the first three Tests, owing to the misplaced faith in Ollie Pope. In his second innings at Melbourne he powered England, who needed the highest total of the match to win, towards the finishing line with some princely strokes. In Sydney, in his second innings, he scored 154, aged 22.

No matter the pattern of Bethell’s scoring as he learns how to bat at No 3, England need to cling on to him like he clings on to sharp chances in the gully – three of them so far in this series. Others have been shelling them in dodgy weather against dark backgrounds.

Sir Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen, old rivals, had another debate before this Test: should Bethell be playing for Warwickshire or getting the occasional T20 hit in the Indian Premier League? Something could be said for both points of view, but nothing could have prepared Bethell for the shooter that he copped on the “unsatisfactory” pitch of the Lord’s Test.

Cook could also claim another debating point after Bethell’s dismissal in this Test. He was lining up Nathan Smith all right and leaving the ball – Smith operating from round the wicket – when he pushed at one that he could have left and was caught behind.

But the conclusive consideration in this debate is the issue of Bethell’s bowling. His stock slow left-arm delivery is potent: Jack Leach and Liam Dawson have had metronomic accuracy on their side, but Bethell puts plenty of wrist-work into his bowling in addition to finger-spin. He can become good enough for England to rely on four seamers on many Test pitches at home, leaving the spin to Bethell and Joe Root’s offies.

He needs plenty of overs however in red-ball cricket to groove his action and learn the ropes. He went into this Test having bowled fewer than 250 overs in his first-class career, and without having bowled a spell in any competitive match since February. Yet he was still England’s leading wicket-taker in the first New Zealand innings with three for 26 and the bowler that Root turned to, after only five overs of the second new ball, to give him some control. And a rookie with 14 first-class wickets behind him did a job for his captain.

There is so much to admire about Bethell, except for his latest haircut.