Joe Root made a fine 90 off 131 balls for Yorkshire in his first game of this season, but England’s new white-ball captain Harry Brook had his defence badly exposed by Warwickshire’s quick bowler Michael Booth and was dismissed for a sketchy 20, to go with his first innings of 33.
Booth had Brook playing and missing outside off stump, twice in two balls at one stage, before Brook hit all round something close to a half-volley and was as lbw as could be. It is Brook’s, and Root’s, only championship match before the England players meet for a training camp, and the new white-ball captain would have benefited from getting his bat on ball more often.
When the ball is straight, on the line of the stumps, Brook’s defence is immaculate. But when he simply pushes at the ball outside off stump, without any footwork, he can look suspect – and that was what Booth did: not outright quick, but rapid in the mid-80s mph, like Josh Tongue.
As he was born and grew up in Harare, Booth could have played for the country of his birth later this month in Zimbabwe’s one-off Test against England. He went on to Hilton College, a school near Pietermaritzburg which has been producing some fine cricketers, then to Durham University where he played from 2021-23. His first game for Warwickshire in 2024 was also his last one of the season owing to injury. So far this summer he has 18 wickets at 23 each.
Booth was notably accurate with his line on fourth or fifth stump, often after angling the ball in, which is how he embarrassed Brook. Booth finished with two for 20 from 11.2 overs, which does not sound remarkable, but it was his spell either side of tea – which troubled Root and Jonny Bairstow too – that tipped the match Warwickshire’s way, leaving them with a target of 185.
Ed Barnard, Warwickshire’s all-rounder, said: “I thought Boothy was outstanding coming down the hill. That one spell he bowled at Brook and Root was of the highest class.”
In Australia’s batting line-up for the World Test Championship final, against South Africa, there will be a contest for selection between the all-rounder in possession, Beau Webster, and the previous holder of that position, Cameron Green.
Webster scored 96 runs for once out on his Test debut, the low-scoring Sydney Test against India. For Warwickshire he made 85 off 86 balls to give them a valuable first-innings lead against Yorkshire, and he included a scoop for six off Ben Coad straight over the wicketkeeper when Bairstow was standing up.
Green, meanwhile, made a century in his first innings for Gloucestershire after a long back injury, followed by three single-figure scores. As the Old Trafford pitch is playing well, he has the chance to impress the Australian selectors against Lancashire. But the likely clincher for Webster is that he is currently bowling, if only medium pace, while Green, though he can bowl fast, is not.
There is nothing to be said for Jacob Bethell warming a bench in the IPL, when he could have been building on his solid start to Test cricket of 260 runs in his first series in New Zealand. He needs to learn how to build a hundred – which he has not made in any professional format – and all the red-ball bowling that he can get, so that he can do a job for England as a slow left-armer when Ben Stokes does not select a specialist spinner.
But Bethell at least has started to play in the IPL, as an opener for Royal Challengers Bangalore, in place of the injured Phil Salt. Bethell began, as an opening batsman, with a brisk 12 off only six balls, and in his second game adjusted to the new, higher standard as quickly as he has done in every format: he scored 55 off 33 balls, and shared a stand of 97 with a batsman slightly better known called Virat Kohli.
It is this speed of graduating to the next level, in every format, which is setting Bethell apart – as a batsman. It is convenient for certain England Test players, especially Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope, that Bethell will miss the one-off Test against Zimbabwe, starting at Trent Bridge on May 22, to stay in the IPL, but one of them – or perhaps the spinner Shoaib Bashir – will have to make way for the 21 year-old in the five-Test series against India.
There are too many porous defences in the England Test team for it to be otherwise.
Joe Root made a fine 90 off 131 balls for Yorkshire in his first game of this season, but England’s new white-ball captain Harry Brook had his defence badly exposed by Warwickshire’s quick bowler Michael Booth and was dismissed for a sketchy 20, to go with his first innings of 33.
Booth had Brook playing and missing outside off stump, twice in two balls at one stage, before Brook hit all round something close to a half-volley and was as lbw as could be. It is Brook’s, and Root’s, only championship match before the England players meet for a training camp, and the new white-ball captain would have benefited from getting his bat on ball more often.
When the ball is straight, on the line of the stumps, Brook’s defence is immaculate. But when he simply pushes at the ball outside off stump, without any footwork, he can look suspect – and that was what Booth did: not outright quick, but rapid in the mid-80s mph, like Josh Tongue.
As he was born and grew up in Harare, Booth could have played for the country of his birth later this month in Zimbabwe’s one-off Test against England. He went on to Hilton College, a school near Pietermaritzburg which has been producing some fine cricketers, then to Durham University where he played from 2021-23. His first game for Warwickshire in 2024 was also his last one of the season owing to injury. So far this summer he has 18 wickets at 23 each.
Booth was notably accurate with his line on fourth or fifth stump, often after angling the ball in, which is how he embarrassed Brook. Booth finished with two for 20 from 11.2 overs, which does not sound remarkable, but it was his spell either side of tea – which troubled Root and Jonny Bairstow too – that tipped the match Warwickshire’s way, leaving them with a target of 185.
Ed Barnard, Warwickshire’s all-rounder, said: “I thought Boothy was outstanding coming down the hill. That one spell he bowled at Brook and Root was of the highest class.”
In Australia’s batting line-up for the World Test Championship final, against South Africa, there will be a contest for selection between the all-rounder in possession, Beau Webster, and the previous holder of that position, Cameron Green.
Webster scored 96 runs for once out on his Test debut, the low-scoring Sydney Test against India. For Warwickshire he made 85 off 86 balls to give them a valuable first-innings lead against Yorkshire, and he included a scoop for six off Ben Coad straight over the wicketkeeper when Bairstow was standing up.
Green, meanwhile, made a century in his first innings for Gloucestershire after a long back injury, followed by three single-figure scores. As the Old Trafford pitch is playing well, he has the chance to impress the Australian selectors against Lancashire. But the likely clincher for Webster is that he is currently bowling, if only medium pace, while Green, though he can bowl fast, is not.
There is nothing to be said for Jacob Bethell warming a bench in the IPL, when he could have been building on his solid start to Test cricket of 260 runs in his first series in New Zealand. He needs to learn how to build a hundred – which he has not made in any professional format – and all the red-ball bowling that he can get, so that he can do a job for England as a slow left-armer when Ben Stokes does not select a specialist spinner.
But Bethell at least has started to play in the IPL, as an opener for Royal Challengers Bangalore, in place of the injured Phil Salt. Bethell began, as an opening batsman, with a brisk 12 off only six balls, and in his second game adjusted to the new, higher standard as quickly as he has done in every format: he scored 55 off 33 balls, and shared a stand of 97 with a batsman slightly better known called Virat Kohli.
It is this speed of graduating to the next level, in every format, which is setting Bethell apart – as a batsman. It is convenient for certain England Test players, especially Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope, that Bethell will miss the one-off Test against Zimbabwe, starting at Trent Bridge on May 22, to stay in the IPL, but one of them – or perhaps the spinner Shoaib Bashir – will have to make way for the 21 year-old in the five-Test series against India.
There are too many porous defences in the England Test team for it to be otherwise.
