Jacob Bethell has given England a range choice to make, says head coach Brendon McCullum.
The 21-year-old performed in his maiden Take a look at sequence in New Zealand, successfully standing in for wicketkeeper Jamie Smith, who has been on paternity go away.
Bethell made three half-centuries, together with top-scoring for England with 76 on the fourth and closing day of their large 423-run defeat within the third Take a look at in Hamilton.
“It is a good headache to have,” McCullum advised ORIONEWS Sport. “That is what you need. You need that dialog, you do not wish to be scrambling round searching for expertise.
“We have a few months to work out what we’re doing.”
The place of Smith, England’s first-choice keeper, was resulting from go to Jordan Cox for the New Zealand sequence, just for Cox to interrupt his thumb within the days main as much as the primary Take a look at.
England reshuffled their aspect, handing the gloves to Ollie Pope, who slid to quantity six within the batting order. Bethell went to quantity three, regardless of by no means beforehand batting greater than quantity 4 in his first-class profession and never proudly owning a century in skilled cricket.
He took the possibility with an unbeaten 50 within the first-Take a look at win in Christchurch and adopted with 96 within the victory in Wellington. Alongside together with his knock in Hamilton, all three scores of fifty or extra have come within the second innings.
Bethell has grow to be solely the second England batter, after Sir Alastair Prepare dinner, to achieve 50 3 times in the identical sequence earlier than the age of twenty-two.
Captain Ben Stokes had beforehand stated he expects England to revert to the unique line-up when Smith is offered, with keeper Smith slotting into the middle-order and Pope again at three.
However McCullum has now hinted Bethell might drive England to assessment their choices, very similar to they did after the sequence defeat in India earlier this 12 months. Their subsequent Take a look at is in opposition to Zimbabwe in Might.
