RCB’s latest recruit, Jacob Bethell has been making the ripples for all the right reasons in the international circuit. After an unbeaten half-century in the first Test, Bethell scored an incredible 96 in England's second Test against New Zealand before Tim Southee got the better of him. Bethell’s phenomenal performance has got the experts talking and one of them is former English captain, Mike Atherton.

Writing in his column for The Times, Mike Atherton penned, “Ever since he walked to the crease for the first time in Test cricket in Christchurch, Jacob Bethell has looked like one of that blessed number. He has carried himself with supreme confidence and poise, as if he knows he belongs at this level even if it might take others a little longer to recognise what he believes is self-evident."

Heaping plaudits on Bethell’s brilliant 96, Atherton said, “This was a gem of an innings really when you consider his age — at just 21 years and 45 days, he would have become England’s fourth youngest hundred-maker, and the youngest since the Second World War, had he got there — and his inexperience at this level and in the No3 position.”

Jacob Bethell is a welcome change for England considering the hefty experimentations that have gone in order to scout the youngster. England has formerly tried to fast track the likes of Shoaib Bashir, Rehan Ahmed and Josh Hull to Test cricket but somehow the tricks didn’t really work. Bethell’s scintillating nick in the series has been instrumental in England knitting a web of dominion over the visitors.