(Reuters) – 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.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford)
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