England has announced their Playing 11 for the second test against New Zealand in Wellington where Jacob Bethell has been positioned in No.3 starting on December 06. The visitors secured a comfortable 8-wicket victory in the series opener in Christchurch.
A couple of days before the start of the match, England announced the playing 11 for the test. Despite calling up Durham Wk-batter Ollie Robinson to the England squad as Jordan Cox’s replacement, England have opted to stick with the same line-up from the first test.
Bethell’s selection seemed a bit rushed after the 21 year old was dismissed for 34 ball 10 in the first innings but he proved to be more suitable for the position with a fifty in the second innings of the match.
Our XI for the second Test against New Zealand has been announced 👇@IGcom | #EnglandCricket
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) December 4, 2024
Meanwhile Pope will continue with the gloves at No.6 from his usual spot at first drop to focus on keeping duties. It will be his fifth test designated wicketkeeper, all of which have come overseas.
“They always say when you don’t notice a keeper he’s done a good job and Ollie certainly did that,” said Chris Woakes. “He was brilliant last week, stepping into a role he hasn’t done a lot of.
“Obviously he can keep and has done previously for England, but to step up at short notice like that and do the job he did was fantastic.”
“For him to score runs just shows his character, putting his hand up for the team without any fuss and cracking on. to move to number six, get such a good score for us and contribute to a big partnership was massive.”
“A lot of the time I think these stats that come out are pure coincidence,” said Woakes.
“I don’t think it’s anything to do with anything. New Zealand have some very good opening bowlers. He faces the new ball when they are their freshest and best, so he’s probably got some good balls in there.
“We’ve see the quality Zak has. Opening the batting is such a difficult job to do, that you will have occasions where you get low scores.”
“We’ve seen what Zak can do. When he gets in, he’s one of the worst batters to be bowling at in international cricket. I’m sure that will change.”
England Playing 11 for Second New Zealand Test: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope (wk), Ben Stokes (c), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Shoaib Bashir.
