Stevens, who plays for Miramar and is contracted to the Wellington Phoenix, has been called into the senior All Whites team and will be part of the squad to take on Uzbekistan in Tashkent next week.
Stevens (19) comes into the team for Ryan Thomas.
Thomas drops out of the squad due to some injury niggles, with his Dutch club, PEC Zwolle, withdrawing him from the international next week.
But Thomas' bad luck is the good fortune of Stevens, who continues a rapid rise in the sport.
He will join another former Dunedin player, Cameron Howieson, in the All Whites squad, which will play its first game under new coach Anthony Hudson.
The match against Uzbekistan, which is ranked 54th in the world, takes place next Wednesday. The All Whites have gathered in Doha and start training over the next couple of days.
Ipswich Town's Monty Patterson has taken Stevens' place in the New Zealand under-20 side, which is preparing for a four-nation tournament in the Middle East.
Stevens, a former Kaikorai Valley College and Otago Boys' High School pupil, played football for Green Island as a schoolboy in the Football South premier league, and then headed to a scholarship at the Asia Pacific Football Academy.
He is on a fulltime youth contract with the Phoenix and also plays for Wellington in the national summer league.
Stevens looks likely to be a key part of the New Zealand team that will contest the Fifa under-20 World Cup in New Zealand next year.
