by England have thrown Jacob Bethell into the deep end after asking the 21-year-old to bat at number three on his Test debut against New Zealand this week.
The tourists were forced to think again in the eleventh hour after wicketkeeper Jordan Cox was ruled out of the series with a broken thumb and responded with a typically bold gamble, handing the gloves to Ollie Pope and a key role for the player inexperienced from Warwickshire.
Bethell has just landed a £250,000 Indian Premier League contract with Royal Challengers Bangalore, but has played just 20 first-class matches at a modest average of just 25.44 and has never scored a professional century.
He has also never reached number three in red-ball cricket, a pivotal position he will now occupy against the in-form Black Caps in Christchurch in the first Test, which begins at 10pm GMT on Wednesday evening.
The Barbados-born left-hander made his first international appearance in September and has already won 15 caps in limited-overs cricket, enjoying some exciting cameos along the way and earning a place on the recent tour to the West Indies.
It was thought he would have to wait for his first taste of Test cricket, but Cox’s injury forced England’s hand.
They could easily have placed the newcomer in the middle order but, having allowed Pope to drop to number six after coming forward behind the stumps, they opted to catapult Bethell down the order rather than promote Joe Root or Ben Stokes.
Root, who will win his 150th cap at Hagley Oval, remains in his preferred four-man position and Stokes drops down to seventh.
Stokes will support a three-pronged attack comprising Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse and Gus Atkinson, with Shoaib Bashir retained as first-choice spinner.
