Former England captain Michael Vaughan has joined Alastair Cook in asking Jacob Bethell to leave the Royal Challengers Bengaluru camp for England if he’s not dead-set to play the remaining matches in IPL 2026.
Vaughan made the comment after Bethell missed out on RCB’s playing 11 for Friday’s match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. RCB captain Rajat Patidar said Bethell had a finger injury, and Venkatesh Iyer was promoted to open alongside Virat Kohli, despite Phil Salt also joining the squad. That makes it four opening options with Bethell, talented as he is, likely to be last on the pecking order.
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“If Jacob Bethel’s injured, he should be on the next plane home to England,” Vaughan told Cricbuzz.
“England plays a Test match on June 4th, making sure that you know, England has a look at him before potentially, to see if he is fit or not going to be fit for the Test match against New Zealand. I would think he’s better off back in the UK, just getting assessed,” he added.
Bethell batted for seven innings, scoring 96 runs at an average 13.71 and a strike-rate of 124.67.
“I’m being a bit old school, I guess they’ll say he’s got to stay till the end, but if he’s not going to play for Royal Challengers Bangalore, England have got a training camp this next week. He should be back home in the UK. You know I’m a big believer in the IPL. If you’re going to play, it grows your game massively. And obviously, when you’re a young player in the dressing room with lights, I completely get it. But at this stage, last year he did it, so he learned a lot last year. This year, he’s done it, he’s played a little bit, and not had a huge amount of success. But if he is injured, England has a training camp this week. Baz McCullum arrives in the UK on Sunday morning. I think the training camp starts Monday. He should be back in the UK with the team,” Vaughan said.
When Zaheer Khan, on the same show, suggested that Bethell might not be interested in taking a pay-cut for the last few days, Vaughan replied, “He’s been here enough. He can miss a week!”
