Atherton

Every time you see him, even in practice, he has that confidence.

And then you put that into his calmness and composure.

If you compare it to someone like Ollie Pope, who he's coming in for, Ollie always looked frenetic at the crease.

I think Jacob Bethel played more forward stationery, forward defences today, I'm not going to do it left-handed, than Ollie Pope, who was jabbing at the ball, right hip coming through.

And I think that just sends a message to everyone of I'm in control.

But yet he got the tempo of his batting.

A lot of this England side has been talking about tempo too hard, not hard enough.

I thought he just got... It was an old-fashioned...

test match.

I mean the biggest confidence compliment I can give him was it was the sort of innings you'd expect David Gower to play.

You bowl him a good ball he'll defend and you bowl him a bad ball and he'll put it away.

It was just an old fashioned number three innings and it was lovely to watch.

You said it was one of the best you've seen.

blonde but not really blonde but you know almost um and so yeah i had a few flashbacks and you know and the way that he played yeah and you know the family as well and the backstory what will they be like i mean they must have been so nervous watching that how proud will they

Yeah, it's a sort of tick and a negative for the England hierarchy and management because they brought him in, if you remember, not only in New Zealand, but they brought him in at number three, a position he hadn't batted, and he looked really good.

And that was a real tick for Key and McCullum and Stokes and obviously himself.

And then he goes missing, doesn't play enough cricket.

He stays at the IPL.

He, by admission, should have played more domestic cricket, more first-class cricket, and he lost rhythm.

He played that chaotic innings and game against India at the Oval.