The Ashes: Jacob Bethell fails to push Test case as England Lions beat PM XI in pink-ball warm-up

Despite the upcoming second Test also being a pink-ball match, it’s debatable whether England’s Test batters would have benefited significantly from being here.

The match was low key, played in gentle surroundings and with none of the feverish intensity expected at the Gabba.

The PM XI’s attack was willing but inexperienced, apart from 41-year-old former Australian seamer Peter Siddle. The other four pace bowlers on show had six first-class wickets between them.

The weather conditions will be completely different in Brisbane too. It was 12 degrees centigrade when the game finished – Tim Paine, the coach of the home team, was wrapped in a blanket as he watched on.

Tongue had a solid workout on the first day. He bowled with control and good pace in his 16 overs and although he went wicketless, he had two catches dropped.

Bethell, however, missed the chance to make the most of a good batting pitch. He fell to a tame dismissal against a bowler who is yet to make his first-class debut.

Bethell made an untroubled start against the off-spin of Nathan McSweeney, and Siddle. He took two boundaries off Siddle through the offside, one cut through backward point, the other guided to deep third.

He then pushed at a ball in the channel outside off-stump against the tall left-arm pace bowler Campbell Thompson and feathered a low catch through to wicketkeeper Joel Curtis.

Bethell has only passed fifty once in the nine white, red and pink-ball innings he has played since leaving the UK in early November.

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