Ben Stokes shared his views that retaining Ollie Pope over Jacob Bethell to start the India Test series at No. 3 was a no-brainer.

“The ‘big selection’ idea didn’t come from us,” Stokes said on the eve of the series opener in Leeds. “It would be remarkable to choose someone else if their last knock was a 170 [171], and that’s pretty much all I need to say on that.”

Discussions were going on around the exciting Bethell to take up the No.3 spot as Pope dropped down the order after filling in as wicketkeeper. Bethell, who made his debut in New Zealand, hit fifties in each of the three Tests but missed the Test against Zimbabwe at the start of the summer due to his IPL commitment with Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

On the other hand, Ollie Pope smashed a 166-ball 171 against Zimbabwe, but his eighth Test ton didn’t ensure him against the selection debate as well. It happened because of an inconsistency in his returns over time. He also hit a sensational 196 against India 15 months ago, but that score was followed by more low scores as well. Overall, Pope averages 43.06 as well.

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“In this day and age it’s very tough to not see all that kind of speculation and stuff around it just because of how easily accessible things are. You don’t even have to go and hunt for it to see it these days,” Ben Stokes said of Pope. “But I think scoring 170 in his last Test match has sort of shown how well he’s handled that extra scrutiny.”

Ben Stokes also played down the inexperience of his bowling group in the absence of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, and called on the returning Chris Woakes to step up against India.

“I think this is correct but since me and Baz [McCullum] have been captain and coach, I don’t think we’ve actually lost a game with Woakesy in the team so again that just proves how much of a valuable cricketer he is to any team that he’s turned out for. I think him being the leader of the attack, he’s going to thrive off that responsibility and yeah he’s a quality cricketer… you know the relentlessness that he has with the ball, whether that be new ball or old ball, and then having his ability with the bat down at number eight obviously, that’s a plus,” he stated.

“I think like experience is experience…. Obviously it’s spoken about a lot, but I see at the end of the day, whether you’ve played 100 games or five games, it’s the skills that are the most important, valuable thing when you come out to play any form of cricket. Brydon’s [Carse] had an unbelievable start to his international career in all formats to be honest and he’s been great for this Test team when he’s got the shirt, so I don’t look into that too much,” he shared again.

“And it’s great to have Toungy [Josh Tongue] back over you know the injuries that he had for pretty much a year out of the game. So to see him back playing for Notts and doing really well and getting this opportunity again in England, it’s very exciting. So yeah, really looking forward to the boys going out there this week,” Ben Stokes cocnluded.