While Smith’s selection is not a surprise, his promotion to number three is given his limited experience. He has not batted higher than number five in his seven previous one-day internationals.
Coach Brendon McCullum is a huge admirer of the Surrey wicketkeeper, who has impressed since making his Test debut under the New Zealander last July.
Smith scored his first Test hundred against Sri Lanka last August and was then picked for the 50-over series against Australia at the end of the summer – the first after McCullum was appointed as white-ball coach.
In those five matches he scored 124 runs with a high score of 49 and kept wicket ahead of Salt, who then reclaimed the gloves in India.
His selection means Liam Livingstone and Joe Root will share the responsibilities of being England’s fifth bowler.
They did so in the third ODI against India in Ahmedabad last week when they returned figures of 1-104 in 13 overs.
World champions Australia are yet to name their XI but will be without all three of their famed pace trio Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc, who have all been ruled out of the tournament.
England go into the Champions Trophy on the back of defeats in their past four ODI series, including the 3-0 thrashing by India, but spinner Adil Rashid said England believe they can win the title.
“Regardless of what happened in India, we’ve got that belief that we’ve got the talent, we’ve got the world-class players, the match-winners in the squad to win the tournament,” he said.
