England’s stand-in captain Ollie Pope has likened leading his side in the first Test match last week to making his debut all over again. Pope came in for Ben Stokes, who has been sidelined from the summer with a hamstring tear as well. Even though Pope’s captaincy stint got off to a winning start in Manchester, he could manage only 12 runs across two innings.
“It’s obviously different captaining for the first time. It’s obviously a fresh start. For me, it had a slightly different feel… it’s the first time you do it, almost like that debut feeling again,” Pope said on the eve of the second Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s. “But at the same time, I really enjoyed the week. Obviously, the runs did not translate for me but hopefully over the next two weeks, I can put aside my captaincy.”
Ollie Pope also revealed he had a chat with former England captain Joe Root with regards to balancing batting and captaincy in the middle as well.
“Just spoke [to Root] about how it’s more taxing in the field, but it’s finding a little routine and doing small things. It’s nothing massive, but finding a way once you do get your pads on to get into your old routine of how you go out and bat. It’s just making sure that I keep doing what has brought me success over the last couple of years and having that on repeat,” Pope said.
Meanwhile, Pope also has their regular captain Ben Stokes around him to speak to as he decided to stick around with the squad while forging a recovery from his hamstring tear. Pope also revealed that Stokes’s comeback for the tour of Pakistan is on the cards.
“He’s still a fair way off playing, he’s not trying to play as a batter and first slip just yet,” Pope said. “Injuries are never ideal but they’re also great chances for people to keep improving their game and have a bit of time for reflection and think about what they can work on. I’m sure that’s exactly what he’s doing in the nets. Going into that Pakistan series and then New Zealand he’s going to be as fresh as anyone.”
“With what Brendon did leading into this summer, he made some brutal changes that he saw will take the team into a better place going forward. We don’t use the term ‘Bazball’, but we played a different style of cricket and that’s something that can keep taking us forward as a team. When we can be ruthless, we’ve got to try and be ruthless just to win as many games as possible. Other days, we’ll score a little bit more freely and take the wickets in a shorter amount of time,” Ollie Pope concluded.
