Ash 2025/26: Michael Atherton thinks that Jacob Bethell will start the first Ash test at N ° 3 on Ollie Pope | Cricket news

Michael Atherton suspects that Jacob Bethell will get the wink to start at N ° 3 on Ollie Pope during the first Ashes test in Perth.

Atherton and his other former England captain Nasser Husser Hussain dissected the England team appointed for the Ashes in Australia series, which begins at the Optus stadium on November 21, on the last edition of the Sky Sports Cricket podcast.

Hussain said that the England’s selection panel “had not flashed” in the choice of a team to adapt to the style in which the head coach Brendon McCullum and Captain Ben Stokes want to play, while Olheton declared that the change of vice-captain of the Pope at Harry Brook was remarkable given the potential implications for the place of the old.

“I thought it [the vice-captaincy change] was the most important news in fact, since the team was a bit predictable except for [Will] Jacks, “said Atherton.

“I actually thought that it was the little news that interested me the most.

“First, because Stokes may not play the five games. He is 34 years old. Five tests come quickly. The last three arrives very quickly.

“In recent times, although he has looked in a fantastic physical condition against India, played as well as perhaps six or seven years, he has always been injured at the end and has not seen this through this series of five tests.

“So he can’t play the five, in which case it will be Brook, not the pope [as captain].

“But I felt that there was a little more than that.”

By reflecting on the comments of England, the managing director Rob Key on Wednesday, Atherton added: “[Key] suggested that there is no subsequent reason for the Pope’s decision in the sense that he is the man in possession in n ° 3 and the fact that he is no longer vice-captain does not automatically mean that he will be demoted for Jacob Bethell.

“But I just have an instinct, a feeling in the waters, that they will play in Bethell. It’s just a really supposition, just a kind of instinct that you get. I think this decision is somehow.

“There is a little cricket to play before arriving in Perth, obviously for Bethell in white ball stuff, not so much for Pope, but I would not be surprised to see Jacob Bethell go out in Perth at n ° 3.

“In this case, I would return where we were in May and ask myself the question why he was not brought back and to get experience in his legs throughout the summer.”

On the impact that the decision can have on Pope, Hussain said: “Key’s key line yesterday was” we think Harry Brook is a better leader “. This is a fairly solid statement to make.

“Ollie Pope is a boy, I think, prosperous to confidence.

“So that may have distorted his confidence a little.

“But if Stokes is injured now, Harry Brook is captain. I was not so agitated on the whole thing of the vice-captain.”

Tributes to woakes with omission to end the test career

After being envisaged for the Ashes team on fitness terrains in the middle of the dislocated shoulder recovery he suffered during the fifth summer test at home against India, the test career of Chris Woakes, 36, seems to have fine after 62 appearances with more than 2,000 points and almost 200 counters.

“Rob Key said Chris Woake was no longer in their plans,” said Atherton.

“It is a sad way of finishing given the injury we saw in the oval and this incredibly dramatic outcome to this series, but given its age, since it is not in good shape for the ashes, the end of the ashes will begin almost a new cycle and therefore they will obviously seek to move on.

“But it seems that we will probably not see Chris Woakes in Test Cricket, in which case he had a fairly good career.”

Hussain added: “You just hope that Rob had spoken to Chris Woakes. I am sure he had done; to say suddenly that he is not part of our plans, this practically means that we look in another direction.

“So he was a great servant, a very, very fine cricket player for England, and it seems that England goes from him.”

Series of ash in Australia 2025-26🏏

All times in the United Kingdom and Ireland

• First test: Friday November 21 – Tuesday November 25 (2:30) – Optus Stadium, Perth
• Second test (day / night): Thursday December 4 – Monday December 84:30 am) – Gabba, brisbane
• Third test: Wednesday December 17 – Sunday December 21 (12h) – Oval Adelaide
• Fourth test: Thursday December 25 – Monday December 29 (11:30 p.m.) – Melbourne Cricket Ground
• Fifth test: Sunday January 4 – Thursday January 811:30 p.m.) – Sydney Cricket Ground