England batter Ollie Pope stepped up on Day 3 (Saturday, January 27) of the first Test series against India at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. He gave his team some hope of making a comeback in the game, remaining unbeaten on 148 at stumps. Dinesh Karthik shared that Pope tends to be reluctant towards the start of the innings as well.

Speaking to Cricbuzz, Karthik said: “He (Ollie Pope) is one of those batters who is a very nervous starter. You could see that in the first innings as well, he was searching, he was defending, and he was fidgety. Today, the way he started, he got two runs off his first ball. That, in many ways, got his rhythm going, and post that, he looked very confident to play the shots that he has.”

However, Ollie Pope was dismissed for just one run in the first innings. But he bounced back in the second essay, scoring his fifth century in Test cricket and first against India. Dinesh Karthik added that Pope’s confidence would have increased after being named vice-captain of the England Test team.

“When a country gives you responsibility, there is a sense of confidence as well. He is the nominated vice-captain. That confidence is coming through. Yes, there must have been a little bit of pressure because we spoke about a lot of batters who could get runs, I don’t think it will be honest of us to say we say Pope doing this today; we didn’t see that happening. It just shows that he believed in himself. But most importantly, this one will put a lot of naysayers to rest with the way he approached things more than anything,” Dinesh Karthik concluded.