Matt Maher: Two phone calls changed the lives of Warwickshire Bears starlets
Jacob Bethell was making breakfast when his phone rang, Dan Mousley was sitting in a car park when his did the same.
Such can be the everyday mundanity in the moments before lives are changed and dreams realised.
Both phone calls were from the same man, England’s white ball interim head coach Marcus Trescothick, delivering the same message they had received their first senior international call-ups for this month’s limited overs series against Australia.
“It was cool, if a bit surreal,” admits Bethell.
“When the call comes, it is a bit of a shock,” says Mousley, his Warwickshire and soon-to-be England team-mate.
Neither had any inkling a call might have been coming their way, yet in truth both had been touted to be on England’s radar after a summer in which they underlined their potential with performances for the Bears in the T20 Blast and the Birmingham Phoenix in The Hundred.
England had definitely been on the mind.
“Me and Beth have played together for a long time,” says Mousley. “It is something we have spoken about a lot, rooming together, could we play for England?
“For it to happen now is special. Hopefully we can make our debuts together.”
That moment could come tonight when England take on Australia in the first of three T20 fixtures. Bethell has also been picked for the squad for the five one-day internationals which follow.
As players, he and Mousley have much in common. Both are spinning all-rounders and left-handed batters with the kind of aggressive and sometimes explosive style now so important in the shorter formats of the game.
