Michael Vaughan says England batter Jacob Bethell should be on “the next plane home” after picking up an injury at the Indian Premier League.
Bethell was missing from the Royal Challengers Bengaluru side which lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday, with returning captain Rajat Patidar confirming he had damaged his finger.
RCB have not offered any further information on the extent of the issue, but his omission does raise some alarm bells coming less two weeks before England’s first Test of the summer against New Zealand.
Bethell is inked in to bat at number three having struck a superb century at Sydney in the final Ashes clash in January, but RCB’s involvement in the IPL play-offs mean he is already due to miss next week’s training camp in Loughborough.
And Vaughan believes he should call time on his stint to allow England’s medical staff control of the situation.
“If Jacob Bethell’s injured he should be on the next plane home to England,” the former captain told Cricbuzz.
“He should be back on a plane, making sure that England have a look at him. If he has one I would think he’s better off back in the UK getting assessed.”
Bethell, 22, has played seven of table-topping RCB’s 14 games this season with a top score of 27. He is not a guaranteed pick for the latter stages with Virat Kohli a certain pick at opener, Venkatesh Iyer hitting 44 as Bethell’s stand-in against Sunrisers and fellow Englishman Phil Salt on the way back from his own injury setback.
“I’m a bit old school, they’ll say he’s got to stay to the end but if he’s not going to play for Royal Challengers, then England have a training camp next week,” Vaughan continued.
“He learned a lot last (at the IPL), this year he’s done it and played a little bit but not had a huge amount of success.”
Strike bowler Jofra Archer is already missing the Lord’s Test against New Zealand due to his stint with Rajasthan Royals. He will return to England too late to be considered and is instead targeting the second Test at the Kia Oval.
