Former England captain Nasser Hussain said that Ollie Pope has an issue with starting an innings off on the right note as well. The stand-in captain’s poor show continued as he got out for just one run in the first innings of the second Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s on
Thursday, August 29 as well. However, Pope came to the crease following the dismissal of opener Dan Lawrence in the seventh over and was dismissed by a Lahiru Kumara delivery.

“At the moment, there’s still a bit of bluff from Pope when it comes to batting, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. Someone like Kevin Pietersen had natural strut and swagger, and wanted to put bowlers under pressure, but Pope is not really like that,” Nasser Hussain wrote in his colum for the Daily Mail.

“He’s more like the emerging Ian Bell before he and Pietersen formed that middle-order bond – a nervy, fidgety figure at the crease. Someone lacking the belief someone with his ability should possess. Pope is still in that stage of trying to convince everyone with the projection of his personality. Look at his first class record, it’s utterly brilliant, but his fidgety starts are an issue,” Hussain further added.

However, Ollie Pope started the England home season on a bright note, scoring a fifty and a hundred in the first two matches against the West Indies as well. But since then he has recorded only 23 runs in the last five innings, and has not reached double digits in three successive innings as well.

“Pope’s issue is that he is a poor starter. I don’t recall Joe Root looking frenetic at the beginning of an innings, even when he was captain, and he was often coming in at 20 for two. The most important thing, he told me, was getting runs, because everything flows from that. Every decision you make seems easier when you’re contributing with the bat. Remember, that is his number one job. It’s why he’s in the side and No. 3 is a pivotal position,” Nasser Hussain added in his column.