England’s Jacob Bethell will bat at number three for the first time in first-class cricket when he makes his test debut against New Zealand at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval on Thursday.
In a rejig forced by the injury to wicketkeeper Jordan Cox, Ollie Pope will take the gloves and drop down the order to bat at six with Bethell coming in at first-drop ahead of Joe Root, who will play his 150th test.England confirmed their line-up for the first of three tests against the Black Caps before training on Tuesday morning with Bethel’s selection the major surprise.
The 21-year-old, who was born and raised in Barbados, has impressed with his clean striking in the shorter formats and made his Twenty20 and one-day international debuts against Australia in September.
Bethell has never scored a century in any format of the game, however, and boasts an average of only 25.44 in first-class cricket.
Cox was supposed to win his first cap on Thursday as a stand in for regular wicketkeeper Jamie Smith, who is on paternity leave, but fractured his thumb in a net session on Sunday.
Pope has previous experience of keeping wickets in test cricket and will hold the fort until a specialist replacement is flown out from Britain.
The rest of the batting order remains the same as the line-up from the third test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi in late October but the bowling unit has been overhauled in anticipation of a greentop in Christchurch.
Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse will form a three-pronged seam attack with off-spinner Shoaib Bashir offering skipper Ben Stokes a slow-bowling option.England team: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope, Ben Stokes (captain), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Shoaib Bashir.
