Jacob Bethell called up for New Zealand Tests as Jamie Smith misses tour

Jacob Bethell, the Warwickshire batting allrounder, has been drafted into England’s Test squad for next month’s tour of New Zealand, as a replacement for Jamie Smith, who will miss the entire trip on paternity leave.

Bethell, who turned 21 earlier this week, made a solid impression during his white-ball debuts against Australia in September, including a matchwinning 44 from 24 balls in the second T20I in Cardiff. However, he has played just 20 County Championship games in his career, and has yet to make a first-class century.

Bethell’s inclusion is the only change to the 16-man squad that slipped to a 2-1 series defeat in Pakistan last week. Jordan Cox, who was an unused batting reserve before being drafted into the white-ball squad in the Caribbean, is set to make his Test debut standing in for Smith as wicketkeeper.

Bethell’s inclusion is the latest example of England’s move away from traditional selection criteria such as batting and bowling averages and proven experience, and towards players whom they consider have a high “ceiling”. Recent such picks include Leicestershire’s 20-year-old seamer Josh Hull, who debuted against Sri Lanka in the summer, and the spin pairing of Rehan Ahmed and Shoaib Bashir, both of whom have been retained for the New Zealand tour.

Speaking at the PCA Awards in London last month, where he was pipped to the Young Player of the Year trophy by Smith, Bethell had laid out his ambitions to be an all-formats player for England, insisting that a Test call-up remained his ultimate ambition.

“It’s nice to tick off two of them [ODIs and T20I] but definitely the best one’s yet to come, hopefully. Test cricket has always been my dream, and I know it’s taken a different shape in the last three years but, definitely, that’s still my dream, to play Test cricket for England.”

In terms of his potential role in the Test side, Bethell acknowledged his lack of first-class experience means he’s “still finding that out”, but hopes that his second string as a left-arm spinner had enhance his credentials across conditions.

“I definitely made my role clearer this year in the white-ball stuff, but I think at the minute I’m still very adaptable in red-ball,” he said, having made a career-best 93 against Nottinghamshire in April, while batting at No. 6.

“I haven’t really found a place where I’ve gone, ‘right, this feels like home in terms of a place in the batting order’, but I think that could be anywhere from opening the batting to batting No. 7. Especially with bowling offspin, I’m hoping that I can get into a team being a genuine allrounder. so wherever that may be in the batting order it doesn’t really matter, it’s just actually getting into that team.”

The series will begin at Hagley Oval, Christchurch, on Thursday, November 28, with the next two Tests beginning at Wellington on December 6 and Hamilton on December 14.

England Test squad to tour New Zealand: Ben Stokes (capt), Rehan Ahmed, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes