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England have named two uncapped players for the first Test against New Zealand, which starts at Edgbaston on Thursday. Nasser Hussain, the new captain, helped to endorse Chris Read, the Nottinghamshire wicketkeeper, and Aftab Habib, the Leicestershire batsman, when he met the three other selectors in London on Saturday night.

Read, 20, takes over from Alec Stewart behind the stumps, enabling Stewart, the deposed captain, to open the innings free of other responsibilities. Habib, seven years older, was preferred as the No 6 batsman to Darren Maddy and Ben Smith, his county colleagues.

The selectors have also recalled Andrew Caddick, the 30-year-old Somerset opening bowler, who has 21 caps. Caddick is one of five pace bowlers in the 13-man party. The others are Alan Mullally, Dean Headley and two men who have yet to play a Test in this country, Alex Tudor and Chris Silverwood.

Tudor, 21, was taken to Australia last winter to learn something about touring life and played two Tests, in Perth and Sydney, making a lively impression with his fast bowling and showing that he could also bat. He has started the season well with Surrey and, so long as his knee injury is not serious, he will share the new ball with Mullally.

Silverwood, 24, from Yorkshire, also has a knee injury but, like Tudor, is expected to report fit. He played one Test in Zimbabwe three years ago and owes his recall to his good early season form and to the calf injury that will keep Darren Gough, his county team-mate, out of the first Test and possibly the second.

The most encouraging selection is obviously Read, a Devonian, who left Gloucestershire two years ago because his first-team opportunities were restricted by Jack Russell, who was then the England wicketkeeper. Read has been on two A tours and improved sufficiently to be given his chance ahead of Paul Nixon, of Leicestershire.

By choosing Read the selectors have indicated that the old order has come to an end, though they could, and should, have gone further. Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting are innately conservative men, too similar in outlook and temperament to make an ideal selection panel. One of them, by all means; together, no. They should have known that a bolder approach would have won widespread approval.

Habib's selection, at 27, is not necessarily a bad one. Though it is a ripe age for a batsman to become acquainted with Test cricket, Habib was a late starter, joining Leicestershire in 1995 after failing to establish himself at Middlesex. His batting has impressed in Leicestershire's two championship seasons, and he appears to have the character that Hussain will demand from his players.

The new captain's biggest challenge in that regard is Caddick, who is as fine a new ball bowler as there is in county cricket but whose singular personality has won few allies in the England dressing room. Whether Caddick plays at Edgbaston depends on whether England play Phil Tufnell, the one slow bowler named.

The Squad

Nasser Hussain (Essex) Captain
Alec Stewart (Surrey)
Mark Butcher (Surrey)
Graham Thorpe (Surrey)
Mark Ramprakash (Middlesex)
Aftab Habib (Leicestershire)
Chris Read (Nottinghamshire)
Dean Headley (Kent)
Alan Mullally (Leicestershire)
Andy Caddick (Somerset)
Alex Tudor (Surrey)
Chris Silverwood (Yorkshire)
Phil Tufnell (Middlesex)