Gamble on Bethell pays rich dividends for England on New Zealand tour

Jacob Bethell was considered a gamble at No 3 when he was handed his England debut against New Zealand in Christchurch last month and captain Ben Stokes was justified in feeling some sense of vindication after the series was secured on Sunday.

The 21-year-old, who had not batted above No 4 in a single first class match before he did so in a test, produced a half century to seal the eight-wicket victory in Christchurch and an impressive knock of 96 in the 323-run win in Wellington.

"I know there was a bit made of Beth batting at three with his inexperience and the lack of first class cricket batting at the top of the order," Stokes said in his post-match press conference.

"But you know, me and (coach Brendon McCullum) don't think like that. You have a young lad with so much potential and so much talent, why not let him go out there and expose himself to test cricket at its toughest?

"If he hadn't batted in the top three, he wouldn't have slapped 50 odd (in Christchurch), which I've got no doubt led him into this game with the confidence to go out there and play the way that he did in our second innings."

Bethell got his chance because of the absence of wicketkeeper Jamie Smith and an injury to his replacement Jordan Cox, forcing Ollie Pope to drop down the order from No 3 to take the gloves.

Even if he does want to return to first-drop, the rejig also worked out well for Pope with scores of 77 in the first test and 66 in the second as he built key partnerships with Harry Brook.

The only regret for Stokes was that Bethell, who made his England debuts in the shorter formats in September, failed to secure his maiden century at Basin Reserve.

"I was devastated for him to not get that three figures," Stokes added.

"I walked in and I said to him, 'it's only four runs, isn't it?' And his response was, 'yeah, but it would have been flare if I'd smacked that through the covers to bring it up'. Class.

"He's proved a lot to a lot of people and proved why we rate him so highly."