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 its 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.
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Bethell has never scored a century in any format of the game and has 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.
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