Speaking after England's defeat in the final Test of their last red-ball assignment of the winter, Cook asserted that Bethell had done enough during the series to keep his place. Bethell was picked as the spare batter on the tour, but came into the side for the first Test after Jordan Cox returned home with injury. He scored a half-century on debut before falling four runs short of a century in the second Test, and top scoring in the final innings of the series with 76 off 96 balls.

Pope dropped down to No.6 for the series in order to take the gloves, which Cox had been due to take. However, with Jamie Smith set to come back into the Test side over the summer after missing the series in New Zealand on paternity leave, England face a difficult dilemma of fitting three players into two spots.

"Bethell goes in at three," said Cook, speaking on TNT Sports. "For me, he gets the first shot at it. I think, Ollie Pope, there are certain moments in cricket where there are sliding doors moments and I think Jacob Bethell has earned the right to carry on playing. That's certainly not the end of Ollie Pope. He kept unbelievably well in this series and he's part of the leadership group. But for Zimbabwe and for India for that first game, Bethell gets the first go at it."

Sir Alastair Cook would pick Jacob Bethell ahead of Ollie Pope next year at number three 👀 pic.twitter.com/ztEDury2rU

— Cricket on TNT Sports (@cricketontnt) December 17, 2024

Bethell came into the series having yet to score a first-class century. He made his red-ball debut for Warwickshire in 2021, and has generally batted in the middle order in the County Championship. Warwickshire had a strong top-order combination in the Championship last year, No.3 Will Rhodes finished the season with 1,020 runs at an average of 48.57.

"We need Warwickshire to play ball a little bit here," said Cook. "We need him [Bethell] batting in the top order at No.3 for Warwickshire. So they're going to have to fit, I know Tom Latham is going over there next year so he will have to fit in somewhere and Sam Hain, who's been touted as an England player, he's got a great county record, he might have to bat at four, and Tom Latham at five. But Bethell goes first for me."

Bethell had his development contract upgraded to a full time central contract by the ECB during the series in New Zealand. He was bought by RCB for the 2025 IPL for INR 2.60 crore in last month's auction, and could also play a role in England's Champions Trophy campaign early next year. The first assignment of England's 2025 summer will be a one-off Test match against Zimbabwe at Lord's, which will begin on May 22.

Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.