Joe Root first spotted Jacob Bethell at 10. Now, he's the heir to his throne as England's best player

SCG: Jacob Bethell's century was everything Bazball has not been this series.

Elegant, mature and consistent.

Bethell, at 22, showed England's batters - bar Joe Root - exactly how it's done.

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With every off drive came a calmness that hadn't been present at No.3 with Ollie Pope.

Now you'd have to think England moves forward with Bethell in this spot for years to come.

The Barbados-raised wunderkind's maturity is matched with a confidence in his own ability.

In his fifth match, Bethell hadn't reached the century mark in Test cricket or first class cricket for that matter.

But the weight on his shoulders over that milestone was minimal.

"It was always coming," he laughed after day four.

"It's nice to get over the milestone and it gives me a lot of confidence to keep doing it."

Bethell's century came from 162 balls, with seven of those deliveries when he was on 99.

But it was his patience on show in these moments.

It was his time.

"I felt OK, I was quite happy when they brought spin (Beau Webster) on rather than (Scott) Boland," he said.

"I was a bit nervous around him, he just lands it there and it's pretty hard to score off, especially when they brought the field up.

"But when they brought the spinner on I was pretty comfortable to take him over the top. There were a few nerves there."

Bethell's ascendency to the Test arena comes after Root spotted him in Barbados at 10 when the former England captain was still in the early stages of his career.

"He had everything, all the shots," Root said on Stick to Cricket.

The veteran recommended him to Yorkshire, but Bethell ended up at Warwickshire.

In the end, the two would link up again and score a century each in the same Test.

Now despite a 13-year age gap, they've become England's most important batters and Bethell is clearly the heir to Root's throne.

Root spoke after his hundred in this Test about ensuring the next group that travels to Australia will have good memories and not the scars he's had to endure.

That power, which should be with the experienced players, sits now with the centurion England officials call 'star boy'.

For decades, touring Australia has ended the careers of many but on day four at the SCG, a potentially great career was born.