Kent captain James Tredwell has been drafted into the England Test squad with Graeme Swann ruled out of the series with an elbow injury.

The 30 year old spinner will fly straight to New Zealand with Swann to fly to America to have surgery on his troublesome elbow injury that is set to keep him out until early summer.

An ECB statement said: “England offspinner Graeme Swann has been ruled out of the current Test series against New Zealand due to a right elbow injury. Swann will travel to the United States next week to have an operation and will then undergo a period of rehabilitation allowing an anticipated return to competitive cricket in the early summer. A further update will be available following the operation.”

Tredwell has just returned to Kent having been in New Zealand with the England One Day International and Twenty 20 squads and had been expected to partake in pre-season at Canterbury, but will now spend the rest of the month down under.

The Kent skipper has played just the one Test for England so far, against Bangladesh back in March 2010, taking six wickets in the game.

He has been a regular feature in England squads since then, featuring in 14 One Day Internationals and 5 Twenty 20 games, regularly playing in Swann’s absence and will now provide cover to Monty Panesar who was selected for the First Test in New Zealand.