Jacob Bethell has impressed for Warwickshire in English county cricket and was one of RCB's signings at the IPL 2025 mega auction.
Former spinner Monty Panesar believes that Jacob Bethell can be one of the future stars for England in limited-overs cricket. England were knocked out of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy following an eight-run loss to Afghanistan in a Group B match on Wednesday. The Jos Buttler-led side had also lost their opening match against Australia and had to beat Afghanistan to keep their semi-final qualification hopes alive.
Bethell, a batting all-rounder, has impressed in the English domestic circuit for Warwickshire. He made his First-Class debut for the club in 2021 during a County Championship match against Yorkshire and three years later in 2024, he made his T20 Blast debut. In that tournament, he slammed an unbeaten 71 against Worcestershire and also scored a 15-ball 50 against Northants Steelbacks.
“It’s just a mind-shift at the moment. There are young batters who are coming through like Jacob Bethell and they talk a lot about him. But he’s still young, learning his game. There isn’t really any batsman coming through at the moment that you think, yeah, this guy can bat long periods,” Monty Panesar told The Indian Express.
The 21-year-old eventually made his senior England debut in a T20I against Australia in September 2024. Bethell also played in the Big Bash League (BBL) in the 2024-25 season and his standout performance was scoring 87 runs off 50 balls against Hobart Hurricanes. The southpaw was acquired by Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the IPL 2025 auction last year for Rs 2.60 crore.
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Panesar was concerned about the future of county cricket. He stated that with the rise of T20 leagues, several players may not actually turn up to play county cricket.
“I think because of the Hundred, a lot of the batters tend to sort of focus on T20 cricket back home. And you’re getting a lot of batters now who are declining county contracts and actually want to just play franchise cricket around the world because it can earn more money. They’ll end up moving to Dubai as their home and a few players are starting to do that,” added the 42-year-old.
“It is something that is a bit of a concern for England that in the future you may just see more players not playing county cricket, moving to Dubai and playing these franchise cricket leagues because they can earn more money. And England could end up producing T20 batters and not batters for ODI cricket. And that could be a danger for England in the future, ” he explained.
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