Pope vs. Bethell - Who leads the race to be England's number three Down Under?
Despite staunch criticism and the meteoric rise of Jacob Bethell, Ollie Pope is still certain to feature for Ben Stokes' XI come the first Ashes Test in Perth on 21 November.
Pope's place in the side was already under scrutiny during the English summer, despite scores of 171 against Zimbabwe and 106 in the first Test against India. In his eight innings since, however, Pope has only managed one score of 50+ at an average of 25.
This reflects much of his career, where he has built a reputation of scoring big hundreds but never really found any consistency. Notably, since 2024, Pope has only averaged 35.04, but his 196 in Hyderabad is talked about as one of the all time great knocks for a touring batsman in India that set up England's first-Test victory.
The fait of BazBall in Australia also rests heavily on Pope. Untried and untested against such pace and bounce, you feel England will desperately need Pope to score well even if Joe Root overcomes his Aussie woes to score his first hundred Down Under. Other batters that have been handpicked for Australia, notably Zak Crawley and Jamie Smith, could thrive, but are also no guarantees given the temperance needed to thrive in such hostile conditions for five Test matches.
Then there is Jacob Bethell.
His explosion onto the scene in an England shirt has been seismic, having already captained in Ireland, scored a first ODI hundred and made three Test half-centuries at three in New Zealand all before the age of 22.
While Pope's technique has also been critcised by many as jittery and unnerving against what will be relentless lines and lengths from the likes of Pat Cummins, Scott Boland and Josh Hazlewood, Bethell, as a left hander with supreme talent who's demonstrated his temperance in New Zealand, only needs time in the middle to become what England see as their future across all formats.
In mind of all of this, though, I still believe Pope will 100% be the first name on the sheet come Perth because of one factor - Ben Stokes. If Stokes is fit, which seems increasingly likely, he will without doubt trust Pope to deliver, which he arguably has with an average of 39.98 since he took over the captaincy.
And even if he isn't fit, and newly-announced vice captain Harry Brook captains, Stokes will absolutely want Pope's experience, gained from both serving under him and in his place, out in the middle. Stokes himself said it would be "remarkable" if we saw Pope dropped during the India series, with Alastair Cook stating that such a "gamble" in Australia would easily "cause danger" to England's chances of regaining the Ashes.
In Stokes' absence, the obvious replacement for him would then be Bethell to feature at number 6, or to be in contention to play as a spin-bowling all-rounder should McCullum go with four seamers over playing Shoaib Bashir as a frontline spinner.
Either way, Pope is definitely set to feature in Perth, for what is being anticipated as the most highly anticipated Ashes series in Australia and England's best chances of victory since 2010/11, when England last claimed victory away in amazing fashion. Nonetheless, we will still all be praying to avoid another Rory Burns moment come the first ball from Mitchell Starc at the Optus Stadium.
Who will play in Perth?
Pope
Bethell
Both
