England announce playing XI for 2nd ENG vs NZ Test 2024; Ollie Pope to continue as wicketkeeper
England have announced an unchanged playing XI for the second New Zealand Test, starting on Friday, December 6, at Wellington. Ben Stokes' side produced a dominant performance in the series opener, winning by eight wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match affair.
After much deliberation, England decided to play 21-year-old Jacob Bethell at No. 3 in the first Test, with the out-of-form Ollie Pope dropping down to No. 6 and donning the wicket-keeping gloves. However, the move worked incredibly well on both fronts as Bethell overcame a poor first innings with an unbeaten 37-ball 50 in the final innings run-chase and Pope scored an impressive 77 in the first innings.
Apart from continuing with the same batting order, England will reward the bowlers by leaving them unchanged for the second Test. Each of the four specialist bowlers made valuable contributions in both innings on a relatively flat Christchurch track.
While Brydon Carse was the star bowler with 10 wickets in the match, fellow pacers Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson picked up three wickets each across the two innings. England's lead spinner Shoaib Bashir also came to the party with figures of 4/69 in the first innings, helping the side restrict the hosts below 350.
Woakes addressed the media about Pope willingly keeping for the side and batting at No. 6, saying (as quoted by ESPNcricinfo):
"They always say when you don't notice a keeper he's done a good job and Ollie certainly did that. 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," he added.
Meanwhile, the opening Test loss effectively ended New Zealand's World Test Championship (WTC) final qualification hopes. The hosts remain in fifth place with 47.92 percentage points, while England are behind them in sixth with 42.50 percentage points.
The ongoing series is the last for both teams in the 2023-25 WTC cycle.
England's XI for 2nd NZ 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