Bethell looks to cement place as England number three

MELBOURNE, Dec ‌30 : Jacob Bethell was not supposed to be England's headline act in the fourth test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground but he looked like a player who belonged when the tourists made their nervous chase for victory against Australia.

Replacing the dropped Ollie Pope at number three, 22-year-old Bethell had appeared on a hiding to nothing in Melbourne on a difficult pitch in front of a record crowd of 94,000.

His debut Ashes innings on Boxing Day, the biggest occasion in Australia's cricket calendar, was no fairytale, producing one run from five ‌balls and a caught-behind dismissal off Australia's fifth-choice seamer Michael Neser.

His second innings, however, ‌gave a glimpse of why England have such high hopes for the left-hander.

Bethell delivered a composed 40 off 46 balls to help prevent an Ashes whitewash and claim England's first test win in Australia in 15 years.

"I was pretty nervous," he said. "Not so much with the number of people, just the occasion. I've played in India where it feels like there's 160,000 watching."

Bethell was speaking of his stint in the Indian Premier League (IPL) where he played two games for Royal Challengers Bangalore.

While ‍the IPL helped him get used to big crowds, it also meant missing out on more first class cricket, including a one-off test against Zimbabwe in May.

Having shown great promise with three fifties during his debut test tour of New Zealand a year ago, Bethell was not selected for England until the fifth test of the home series against India and managed only single-figure ​scores.

He hardly needed to tap into his limited ‌experience at test level on day two in Melbourne, though, with England facing a white ball-style chase of 175 runs.

On his second ball he lofted