Jacob Bethell is a massive part of the next generation who are going to take English cricket forward, according to Rob Key, managing director of England men's cricket.
The 21-year-old is set to become the youngest England men's captain for an international match, having been named as stand-in skipper for the rested Harry Brook for the upcoming T20 series in Ireland in September.
Bethell is also included in England's squads for the preceding one-day international and T20 series' against South Africa, with the first ODI taking place at Headingley on Tuesday, September 2 - live on SportNews Cricket from 12.30pm (play starts 1pm).
Speaking on the SportNews Cricket Podcast, Key said that Bethell's leadership qualities have stood out since making his debut across all three formats last year - and isn't worried about his tender age.
"Leadership isn't just about seniority, it's not just Joe Root, Ben Stokes, people like that," Key said. "People lead by the way they carry themselves.
"And that's part of it with Jacob Bethell. We very much see him as part of a leadership group.
"It doesn't mean he's going to be the next England captain or anything like that. It just means that in the way that he does things, the way he carries himself, we see leadership qualities in that.
"This lad has shown a lot of what we like, not just as a player, but in everything that he does, and he can drive that forward. It will be a great experience for him [in Ireland].
"This next, 'the [Harry] Brook era', they're the next generation, they've got to take English cricket forward and Jacob Bethell is a massive part of that."
Bethell, and England's use of him this summer, came in for some criticism when the young, left-handed batting talent scored only 11 runs across his two innings in his only Test of the summer, a six-run defeat to India at The Oval that saw the series drawn 2-2.
Bethell missed the Zimbabwe Test match ahead of the India series, choosing to stay with Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, while he played only one first-class match this summer prior to playing at The Oval.
"I find the whole thing fascinating really, the Jacob Bethell debate, about the amount of cricket he plays," Key said.
"I always felt, watching or looking at English cricket, English sport at times, that we're unbelievably conservative. That you have to have played so many red-ball games before you can play for England.
"That's not necessarily the truth when you look through at other countries. Look at someone like David Warner, he'd played a handful of games before he played [for Australia, Steve Waugh played something like nine games, Shane Warne four. Sachin [Tendulkar], one of the greatest players played at 16 [for India], and hardly played any first-class cricket.
"I just think it's an English thing where we think you can't play unless you've served your time and you've done it.
"I tend to think if you're supremely talented, like some players are, that you get them in as soon as you can and you let them try and thrive in that environment."
Key added: "He's going to have tough times, like he did when he went out to bat in that [India] series. And you know what, sometimes you're better for those.
"You don't always pick young players to thrive straight away. You pick them to understand what's required - this is the level, this is the standard.
"I just think he's a very good player with a lot of talent. His career is not going to be defined in the last month. I think we'll see a lot of Jacob Bethell over the years."
Key also addressed Liam Livingstone's absence from England's white-ball squads this summer, having accumulated 100 caps for his country across formats.
On being dropped, Livingstone told SportNews recently that "nobody has really reached out to me to tell me what I need to do or any reasons why".
"I saw something [Livingstone] said the other day that he's not heard anything since being dropped," Key said on the podcast, before joking: "I don't know if he's got a phone, if he's allowed to ring, he's 32 years of age - it's not hard.
"If you want to find out where you are, you've got my number mate.
"Livy has just got to play the way he has done in The Hundred this year. That's been brilliant to see, as runs are your currency.
"He's a fantastic cricketer and you want someone like Liam Livingstone around. He just needs to find that consistency.
"He doesn't need to ring me now, there you go."
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