NZ vs ENG: England call for reinforcement mid-tour after injury to specialist wicketkeeper Jordan Cox

Young wicketkeeper-batter Jordan Cox was ruled out of England's Test series against New Zealand after sustaining a fractured right thumb. He suffered the blow during a nets session before the final day of England's tour match against Prime Minister's XI.

England have called up young wicketkeeper-batter Oliver George Robinson also known as Ollie Robinson as the injury replacement for Jordan Cox for the ongoing three-match Test series against New Zealand. Ollie Robinson plays for Durham and might take up the wicketkeeping duties in the second Test should England give him an opportunity in the playing XI.

Notably, Cox fractured his right thumb during a net session before England's warm-up match against Prime Minister's XI in Queenstown.

Cox, 24, was expected to keep wickets throughout the Test series in the absence of Jamie Smith, who is on paternity leave. However, the unforeseen injury to Cox meant that England had to pass the wicketkeeping gloves to Ollie Pope in the first Test of the series.

Robinson started his first-class career at Kent before moving to Durham. He has aggregated 4174 runs in 78 first-class games at an average of 37.26 and struck nine hundreds and 23 fifties.

In 26 List-A games, Robinson has amassed 821 runs at an average of 39.09, including one hundred and four fifties.

Meanwhile, the three-match series against New Zealand is the final opportunity for the Three Lions to stay mathematically alive in the race to the WTC if they blank the Kiwis 3-0.

The right-handed bat has also racked up 1219 runs in 75 T20s at a strike rate of 127.91 with the help of six half-centuries.

England Test Squad:

Ben Stokes (c), Rehan Ahmed, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Ollie Robinson (wk), Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes

New Zealand Test squad for England series:

Tom Latham (c), Tom Blundell, Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Matt Henry, Daryl Mitchell, Will O'Rourke, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner (Tests 2 and 3), Nathan Smith, Tim Southee, Kane Williamson, Will Young