Old-tech Bashir is trying something wild and brave amid the battle for Bethell | Barney Ronay

Jacob Bethell’s pure talent puts him in high demand, but Shoaib Bashir is the real freelancer in cricket’s deeply confusing worldBruised skies, sun through clouds, dualism, life in death. Welcome to the bloom of another England Test Match summer, the summer, this time around, of Bethell and Bashir. But of Bethell first because he’s the easy bit.The battle for Jacob Bethell is of course just beginning. Everyone wants a piece of England’s most thrillingly talented young cricketer. The broadcasters are frothing. The papers want to know whose shirts he wears. Actually the papers don’t really care. Maybe the Daily Telegraph wants to know this at a push. But Bethell is still kind of perfect right now, a future-bomb, all promise and new things, in a sport that is always desperate for these. Continue reading...

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