Mike Gatting was the last specialist batter England picked who didn’t have a first-class hundred at the time of his Test debut. That was 1978 and, 56 years later, Gatting remains a cricketing household name. From a sample size of one, things bode well for Jacob Bethell – England’s 21-year-old debutant, who started his Test cricket life at No 3 despite never having made a professional century nor batted in the position at any point across his career.

But delve into Gatting’s numbers and a cautionary tale emerges. After 20 Test matches, his average was 22. It took 31 matches until he scored his first century and it was only after 34 Tests that his average ticked above 30. A prodigious talent, exposed too early and learning on the job. A repeat with Bethell would be as sad as much as it would be a waste.

So it was with a deep breath when the Barbados-born left-hander walked out against New Zealand this week with only nine runs on the board and fewer than four overs bowled. It was comfortably the earliest he had come out to bat in his professional career.

The good news, at least, is that he looked the part. He fields in long sleeves, but bats in short. At the crease in Christchurch he added a sleeveless jumper to his wardrobe and sported a chunky sweatband on his right forearm. Zinc was painted in a straight line across both his cheeks and the bridge of his nose.

You don’t spend your teenage years wowing Brian Lara, Garry Sobers and Ian Bell if you don’t carry a certain aura when arriving at the crease. In a pre-series social media video posted by England, Kiwi skipper Tom Latham turns to Ben Stokes off camera and goes: “Looks like a player, eh? Bethell?”

“Yeah, yeah,” replies Stokes. “He’s good.”

The first-ball of his Test career thudded into his back leg and brought about a half-appeal. The second brilliantly fielded in the off-side to prevent a first Test run. In the end, it would take 13 deliveries and 25 minutes for Bethell to make his first Test run. The moment being greeted by half-ironic and half-genuine cheers from the crowd. Bethell looked at his partner Ben Duckett and grinned. He knows the game.

In all, Bethell’s first Test innings summarised both sides of the argument. On paper it is entirely inconspicuous. 10 off 34 balls from a No 3 before edging behind to an excellent delivery. It has happened before and it will happen again. But in his two boundaries, where he pulled and cut Nathan Smith for four in the space of three balls, he exhibited his class, while his time being beaten by high-quality seam bowling which had left him at one stage on one run off 26 balls, exhibited the enormity of the task presented to him.

It’s worth remembering he wasn’t meant to play. Before wicketkeeper Jordan Cox broke his finger five days before the series started, this trip was meant to be work experience for Bethell, where he spent three weeks in the nets learning from the best.

“I don’t know what the chances of me actually playing are,” Bethell said during England’s recent white-ball tour of the Caribbean. “If I do end up playing, then it’ll be time to prove that I can play red-ball cricket.”

Proving you can play red-ball cricket from No 3 on Test debut. Bethell is one-of-one who has been asked to do that.

In all, Bethell’s first showing proved himself to be a talented player who didn’t look out of his depth high up the order but perhaps simply out of place.

Just as Ollie Pope benefitted in the first innings from batting at No 6 and at a time when the ball is moving around slightly less and his natural shot-making proclivities were rewarded, rather than punished, that is a luxury that Bethell himself should arguably be experiencing instead.

Bethell has been picked in the Test team based on potential, but his time in the white-ball team over the past three months has been based on performances. In his last six T20 and ODI innings for England, he has passed fifty on three occasions. His fifty against the West Indies in the one-day format made him the third-youngest England player to ever reach that landmark in ODI cricket.

“He’s an incredibly talented kid,” said Stokes following Bethell’s selection. “I think when you look at someone like Jacob, you can just see the ceiling that he has. I remember watching the one-day series against Australia. I think it was Hazlewood. He bowled him a full ball that he smacked off the front foot, and then he got tested out [with a short ball], like right there, and then whacked it. So, you know, just those tiny little things where you see that there is something very special there.”

In theory, this was meant to be a one-off selection. Durham’s Ollie Robinson is on the plane over to New Zealand to keep wicket and allow Pope to return to No 3 and Bethell to resume his position on the bench.

But following Pope’s runs and competence behind the stumps, that could change. England, happy with their balance and keen to give Bethell further opportunities, could see the youngster given the entire series with Pope remaining at six with the gloves.

“If you look at the way he sets up I think it suits that,” Joe Root said of Bethell’s suitability for batting at three. “Especially here with the little bit of extra bounce and carry. He plays very well square of the wicket and if he gets in on a wicket like that he could be very destructive. It’s a really exciting opportunity and prospect for us to see a young player coming in and hopefully doing something really special at the start of his career.”

England know – and the rest of the world agrees – that they have an incredibly special player in Bethell. Australia’s Glenn Maxwell, in particular, is a big fan. The path Bethell is now taking isn’t completely untrodden after Gatting over 50 years ago, but it is one that carries significant warnings.

Stokes and Brendon McCullum have spent the past two years getting their selections right far more often than they’ve got them wrong. It is in everyone’s interests that they’ve managed that again here.