England announced their playing XI for the first Test of the three-match series against New Zealand, which kicks off in Christchurch on Thursday, November 28. 21-year-old Warwickshire all-rounder Jacob Bethell after earning his maiden Test call-up for England is set to make his debut in the longest format having earlier been handed his cap in T20Is as well as ODIs against Australia. Bethell, who averages 25.33 in first-class cricket is being seen as the next big thing in English cricket and hence has been fast-tracked across all formats in no time.
Bethell, who has impressed with a couple of fifties in T20Is and one in ODIs and offers a handy left-arm orthodox option with the ball, is set to bat at No 3 at the Hagley Oval for England. England had to rejig their batting order after stand-in wicketkeeper Jordan Cox got injured last week in Queenstown and was ruled out of the Test series.
With Cox out, England's vice-captain Ollie Pope will fill in as a wicketkeeper in Christchurch, but the visitors are likely to fly in a specialist in the coming days so that this situation does not occur in the remaining games.
England didn't opt for a specialist wicketkeeper with Jamie Smith going on paternity leave and trusted Cox to do the job. However, Cox's last-minute injury threw the spanner in the works for the visitors.
The remaining line-up stayed on the expected lines with Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse and Gus Atkinson being the three pacers and Shoaib Bashir being the lone spinner.
Bethell gets maiden IPL gig
England confirmed that Bethell will make his Test debut hours after the young all-rounder got his maiden IPL deal with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). RCB bought Bethell for INR 2.60 crore after being in a bidding war with Sunrisers Hyderabad and then Punjab Kings and is likely to be backup for his Hundred teammate Liam Livingstone, who too found a new home in the IPL with the three-time finalists.
England's Playing XI for 1st 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
