England vice-captain Ollie Pope shared his regrets of not making the start of the Indian Test series count big like India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal did for his side. However, he started the series with a stunning 196 in the second innings to help England pull off a stunning 28-run win. However, it turned out to be his lone 50+ score in the series as he scored only 119 runs in the other nine innings which came at an average of under 14. On the other hand, Jasiwal was the batting star of the five-match series, finishing with 712 runs at an average of 89 with two centuries and three half-centuries as well.

Pope was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying: “We felt like there was quite a negative sort of narrative on the team after India, but we always knew winning out there is the biggest challenge in cricket. When I hit that 196, I was like ‘right, I am going to go and have a big series. Like Yashasvi Jaiswal had, trying to score as many as possible. But I probably didn’t adapt my game quickly enough to the conditions that were in front of me rather than just the conditions of the first Test.”

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“That was a frustration, because when you go into a five-match series, you’ve got a chance to play yourself into form but you can play yourself out of form too, and in 10 innings in India that’s exactly what happened. I felt good a couple of times, got myself in, and if I’d kicked on and made one of those innings an 80 and a couple of them 50 it’s completely different. That’s the frustrating thing for me – I’m not so annoyed with the low scores, it’s more when I get myself in and don’t kick on,” he further added.

After having won the first Test, England suffered four consecutive defeats to lose the series 1-4 as well. However, after the disappointment of the final four Tests in India, Ollie Pope did well in the recent home series against the West Indies. He also scored 239 runs at an average of almost 60 with a century and two fifties in three Tests. Ollie Pope also believes that it’s his job to make things easier for captain Ben Stokes by providing input and lauded the latter for his ability to listen to the players’ opinions as well.

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“You wouldn’t always think it, but he’s good at listening to everyone’s opinions. The reason I’m in my role is because I want to be able to challenge him when I see something that I don’t think is quite right, and he wants me to challenge him too, rather than just agreeing with everything he says. My job as a vice captain is to make his job a little bit easier rather than be a headache for him,” concluded Ollie Pope.