England have announced an unchanged playing XI for the second Test against New Zealand as they look to seal the series in Wellington, starting Friday, December 6. Despite calling up Durham wicketkeeper-batter Ollie Robinson to the squad as injured Jordan Cox's replacement, England have opted to stick with the same line-up from the Christchurch win with Ollie Pope batting at No 6 and taking up the wicketkeeping duties with the debutant Jacob Bethell retaining his No 3 spot.
Bethell's selection seemed a bit rushed after the 21-year-old was dismissed for a 34-ball 10 in the first innings but with the youngster smashing an unbeaten 37-ball fifty to take England through to the win probably sealed the deal for him getting a second chance.
With enough rest days in between, England haven't tinkered with the bowling attack as well led by Brydon Carse, who registered his maiden 10-wicket haul in a Test match and would be keen to win the first-ever Crowe-Thorpe trophy at the Basin Reserve itself and not take the series to the decider in Hamilton, which will be Tim Southee's final Test match.
After the Pakistan series, England had a few question marks over their players' form and place in the line-up after an abject display with the bat against spin, however, Pope, especially, did the job while batting at No 6. Pope scored an attractive 77 in just 98 balls and that probably played a part in England not handing out a debut to Robinson.
New Zealand too would want to stage a comeback after a poor fielding display that saw them drop as many as 7-8 catches during their first bowling innings.
England playing XI for 2nd Test against New Zealand: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope (wk), Ben Stokes (c), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Shoaib Bashir
