Rising Yorkshire CCC star Fin Bean in dreamland to be part of such a strong line-up

Four years ago, Bean was working as a mechanic after stepping away from the Yorkshire set-up.

He turned down an Academy contract - uncertain what the future held - before being invited back to the club for a trial on the back of some impressive performances in club cricket for York.

Now the 22-year-old is rubbing shoulders with Adam Lyth, Shan Masood, Joe Root and Harry Brook, who have amassed a whopping 467 international appearances between them.

“It’s remarkable, really,” laughed Bean. “People I speak to say, ‘how the hell did you manage to get into this team!’

“It’s a bit like that, to be honest. It’s been such a whirlwind journey.

“Obviously, I’ve not been in professional cricket for too long, so to be in this line-up is unbelievable.

“I can’t really ask for much more. I’m still pinching myself a bit, definitely.”

Perhaps the biggest compliment one could pay Bean is that he has not looked out of place in any way, shape or form.

His career-best 173 in the recent draw against Glamorgan at Headingley was proof of it; he out-scored everyone in Yorkshire’s 519-7 declared, a magnificent innings that spanned just 189 balls and contained 24 fours and five sixes.

“It’s always nice to get a hundred and the first one for the season, so that settles things down,” added Bean, who put into practice on a turning pitch something that he worked on during an England training camp in Mumbai last winter - namely, developing and improving his boundary options against spin.

“I had the mindset going out to bat, from watching them bat against our spinners, of trying to put them under pressure, especially with the rough that there was, which was one of the work-ons during the winter, being more aggressive against the spinners,” he said.

“As with Shan’s (dismissal), you were always going to get one that popped and turned on that pitch, so I thought I would try and put them under a bit more pressure and put them off their lines and lengths. Fortunately, it worked.

“I felt like I’d been playing quite well this season but the scores hadn’t come, but thankfully it did on this occasion.”

Particularly pleasing for Bean was that he achieved what is commonly known as a “daddy hundred” - a score significantly higher than merely 100 runs itself.

His three previous Championship hundreds - all accumulated last year in his first full season - did not quite fit into that category: 118 against Leicestershire at Headingley, then 114 versus Gloucestershire at Headingley, followed by 135 against Worcestershire at New Road.

Of course, Bean is no stranger to “daddy hundreds” in second team cricket, holding the record for the highest-ever second XI score – 441 against Nottinghamshire in 2022, not so much a “daddy hundred”, perhaps, as a “great-great-great-great grandaddy” hundred.

That innings left for dead Marcus Trescothick’s 25-year-old record of 322 and helped Bean earn a rookie deal at Yorkshire, which was upgraded into a full professional contract last summer.

“It’s definitely a target of mine, to score more big hundreds,” said the Harrogate-born left-hander. "I didn’t get those last year, so that was something I wanted to do coming into this season.

“You have plenty of bad days, after all, so when you do have good days, it’s about making them count and hopefully getting as many as you can.”

One man who knows a thing or two about “daddy hundreds” is Joe Root, who made his sixth score of 150-plus for Yorkshire - out of 11 first-class centuries for the club - in the Glamorgan game. Root struck 156 and shared in a third-wicket stand of 265 with Bean.

“He’s just so busy at the crease,” said Bean. “You look up and he’s on 30 from 20 balls, or something like that.

“It’s remarkable how he goes about it, and it’s definitely something to learn from. He’s just so positive and aggressive.”

Amid the striking nature of Bean’s rise (he averages 42.45 in 21 first-class games since debuting at Old Trafford in late 2022), it is easy to overlook his superlative fielding. Or, more specifically, his superlative catching - most notably in the slips but also at short-leg.

“Short-leg is a bit of a difficult one,” he laughed. “I want to try and get out of there, but I can’t drop them on purpose, can I?

“There’s not really anyone else to do it, so I just get shoved in there. I’m waiting for the next youngster to come along so that they can be chucked in there instead.

“As for the slips, I kept wicket growing up, so that’s helped with my catching and, thankfully, a few of them have stuck.”