Bethell handed England Test debut as Pope takes the gloves

England's Jacob Bethell will bat at number three for the first time in first-class cricket when he makes his Test debut against New Zealand at Christchurch's Hagley Oval on Thursday.

In a rejig forced by an injury to wicketkeeper Jordan Cox, Ollie Pope will take the gloves and drop down the order to bat at six, with Bethell coming in at first drop ahead of Joe Root, who will play his 150th Test.

England confirmed their line-up for the first of three Tests against the Black Caps before training on Tuesday morning, with Bethell's selection the major surprise.

England XI for first Test v 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. 

The 21-year-old, born and raised in Barbados, has impressed with his clean striking in the shorter formats and made his T20 and one-day international debuts against Australia in September.

The left-hander hit 44 off 24 to help England beat Australia in the second T20I in Cardiff, and scored three half-centuries during their white-ball tour of the Caribbean earlier this month.

But Bethell has never scored a century in any format of the game and boasts an average of only 25.44 in first-class cricket.

Cox was supposed to win his first Test cap on Thursday as a stand-in for regular wicketkeeper Jamie Smith, who is on paternity leave, but fractured his thumb in a net session on Sunday.

Pope has previous experience of keeping wickets in Test cricket and will hold the fort until a specialist replacement is flown out from the UK.

The rest of the batting order remains the same as the line-up from the third Test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi in late October, but the bowling unit has been overhauled in anticipation of a green-top in Christchurch.

Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse will form a three-pronged seam attack, with off-spinner Shoaib Bashir offering skipper Ben Stokes a slow-bowling option.