Bethell to bat at three on England Test debut

Jacob Bethell volition bat astatine fig 3 connected his Test debut successful England's bid opener against New Zealand successful Christchurch connected Thursday.

Bethell, 21, plays aft wicketkeeper Jordan Cox was ruled out with a breached thumb.

As a result, regular fig 3 Ollie Pope takes the gloves and slides down the bid to fig six, with skipper Ben Stokes astatine seven.

Warwickshire left-hander Bethell has impressed successful white-ball cricket for England, but was a astonishment enactment for this tour.

He has ne'er made a period successful elder nonrecreational cricket and not batted higher than fig 4 successful his 20 first-class matches.

Bethell is the latest bold enactment telephone from England, who get connected the backmost of 3 defeats successful their past 4 Tests pursuing a 2-1 bid nonaccomplishment successful Pakistan past month.

The archetypal Test astatine Hagley Oval (11:00 Thursday section time, 22:00 GMT Wednesday), begins a three-match series, with games successful Wellington and Hamilton to follow.

Cox was owed to marque his ain debut arsenic regular keeper Jamie Smith is connected paternity leave, but broke his close thumb successful the nets during England's warm-up crippled successful Queenstown implicit the weekend.

With nary specializer reserve keeper successful the tourists' squad, Pope volition basal successful down the stumps, arsenic helium did during England's circuit of this state successful 2019, and successful Pakistan 2 years ago. Durham's Ollie Robinson is expected to beryllium called up successful clip for the 2nd Test.

Brydon Carse, awesome successful his archetypal Test bid successful Pakistan, joins Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson successful the gait attack, with Shoaib Bashir retained arsenic the frontline spinner.

Skipper Stokes, who struggled successful Pakistan aft returning from a hamstring injury, plays successful the metropolis of his birth, portion Joe Root becomes the 4th Englishman to scope 150 Tests.

New Zealand pulled disconnected 1 of the all-time large victories successful their past Test series, a 3-0 triumph successful India.

They person erstwhile skipper Kane Williamson backmost from injury, and uncapped seamers Nathan Smith and Jacob Duffy vying to marque a debut.

England XI for archetypal Test: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope (wicketkeeper), Ben Stokes (captain), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Shoaib Bashir.