Why hasn't James Rew, England's most prolific first-class batting prospect, played Test cricket yet?

Having only turned 21 in January this year, it is a quietly extraordinary feat. The innings to bring up the milestone was noteworthy in its own right, with Rew successfully marshalling a chase of 321 against arguably the most potent attack – Essex’s quartet of Sam Cook, Jamie Porter, Simon Harmer and Kasun Rajitha – in the domestic game.

Rew’s raw first-class numbers are outstanding. His 45 first-class appearances have seen him tally up more than 2,600 runs at an average of 43.35. In Division One cricket, Rew averages 46.03, more than Jordan Cox (45.34), Jamie Smith (41.03), Zak Crawley (33.97), Ben Duckett (32.88), Harry Brook (35.73), all of whom are part of the current England Test set-up.

We know that the current leadership group are not afraid of plucking youngsters out of county cricket if the circumstances are right. Since Ben Stokes assumed the captaincy three years ago, four players – Rehan Ahmed, Shoaib Bashir, Josh Hull and Jacob Bethell – have debuted at a younger age than Rew is now.

On paper, his story arc is that of a classic Bazball prodigy pick. Rew was extremely highly rated as a teenager, so much so that his first-class debut was as a 17-year-old as part of a County Select XI that took on the touring India team in 2021. Rew’s first dismissal with the gloves? Stumping the India stalwart Cheteshwar Pujara on his first morning as a first-class cricketer.

From there, Rew’s progression was seamless and exciting. The following winter, he top-scored in the Under-19 World Cup final, scoring 95 of England’s 189 runs as they fell to defeat against India. Rew then broke into the Somerset County Championship side in 2022, averaging 37 from seven games, before quickly establishing himself as one of the most consistent run-scorers in the country. In 2023, while still a teenager, Rew racked up five Championship hundreds. A slightly quieter but still respectable year followed in 2024, but in 2025 Rew has made another statement start to a campaign.

So why has Rew, the English youngster with the most formidable first-class record in the country, not yet won a Test call-up?

There are a few factors here. Firstly, Rew exclusively bats at six for Somerset; he is yet to bat in the top five of a County Championship game. The current England Test side is not short on options with the gloves or in the lower middle order. Stokes is a lock at six, while Smith has made the wicketkeeping position his own. If England were to get funky and promote Smith up the order, Pope showed that he is also a dependable option to have with the gloves at six or seven. Cox, the current batting back-up, averages 65 in the Championship since joining Essex last summer.

It is also rare for England to pick a specialist batter who does not bat in the top five for his county side. Bat higher up the order, and you are exposed against a newer ball and fresher bowlers. There is a perception that life as a No.6 is easier than that of a No.3 or 4.

There are a couple of recent exceptions to this rule. Pope was sensationally picked as England’s No.4 during the 2018 summer during his first full summer as a Championship regular, doing his business at No. 6 for Surrey. That experiment lasted two Tests before Pope muscled his way back into contention the following summer after moving up to second drop in county cricket.

Bethell is the most striking example in the Stokes-McCullum era. The 21-year-old, a contemporary of Rew’s from the 2022 England Under-19 side, was picked without a first-class century to his name at the end of 2024. Bethell also predominantly batted at seven for Warwickshire in 2024.

The crucial difference, though, is that Bethell had shown an acumen against international quality bowlers in short-form cricket. By the end of the 2024 summer, Bethell was an England international in two formats after a breakout pair of Blast and Hundred campaigns. He wasn’t an unknown to the England hierarchy and, crucially, had the opportunity to impress against quicker bowlers in both domestic and international cricket. This last point, an aptitude against high pace, is difficult for red-ball specialists, which Rew effectively is at this point of his career, to prove.

That isn’t to say that Rew hasn’t demonstrated his potential against the white ball. Somerset are consistently among the top-performing sides in the Blast and Rew has found first-team opportunities hard to come by. Last summer, Rew made his Somerset T20 debut in the T20 Blast semi-final, scoring an unbeaten 62* from No.4 to help his side qualify for the final having been 7-3 earlier in the chase. More opportunities to impress in high profile T20 games against bowlers of international class will only further his England case.

County Championship pitches, especially those in the early stages of the season, are generally on the slow side. Bowlers, worn down by a brutal early season schedule, rarely hit the speeds that are seen in Test cricket. It is a game played in different conditions to those that exist in the Test arena. There have also been rare occasions where Rew has failed to grasp an opportunity to make hay against a quicker attack on a quicker surface. Against Surrey at the Oval two weeks ago, his 71 minutes at the crease yielded six runs across two innings.

Rew has caught England’s attention enough to already be an established tourist with the second-string Lions side. Performances at Lions level can often fast-track a player’s ascension to higher honours. Dan Lawrence was the talk of the town after a dominant Lions tour Down Under in 2019/20, while more recently, a blistering 71-ball hundred from Jamie Smith in Sri Lanka earmarked him as a player of serious potential. Even in the 2024/25 winter, Ben McKinney’s hundred against Australia A has seen him viewed as a viable alternative to Zak Crawley despite not yet having a full Championship season under his belt.

Unfortunately for Rew, he has not made opportunities with the Lions count. From eight red-ball appearances for the Lions across three years, he averages a paltry 16.76. Perhaps tellingly as to how England view his longterm future, Rew was deployed as an opener in one fixture in South Africa over the winter. He has never batted in the top five for his county.

His moment with England may well come soon. There are few more consistent run-scorers in the top division of the Championship and opportunities to impress both higher up the order and in T20 cricket are surely just around the corner. But for the moment, there are understandable reasons why his chance hasn’t come just yet.

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