In a career that has seemed to be in a constant state of flux, he will be desperate to get this move right
Vithushan Ehantharajah28-Aug-2024The circumstances around Ollie Pope’s temporary Test captaincy are peculiar enough with Ben Stokes sitting stage-side like a proud mum at the school play encouraging you to smile more. But as England’s stand-in primes himself for the honour of leading the team out at Lord’s on Thursday, he does so with the focus squarely on him as a player rather than a defacto leader.Victory in the first Test at Manchester was, by and large, routine. Sri Lanka’s resistance amounted to quelling England rather than countering them. Pope captained well, particularly when shorn of Mark Wood for the business end of Sri Lanka’s second innings, albeit with assistance from a ball-change 41 overs in. But his sole takeaway was a need to strike a balance between skippering and batting.Scores of 6 in both innings were far from ideal. And the nature of the dismissals – bowled stuck on the crease; scuffing a reverse sweep to first slip – would have been fertile ground for riffing on a No.3 preoccupied with digesting his on-field captaincy had Pope not sowed the seeds of that take and then harvested them himself.Related
Ollie Pope is a potential weak link for England at No. 3
Ben Stokes: Criticism of Ollie Pope reflects 'English culture towards sport'
Dhananjaya wants county exposure for SL batters
Sri Lanka seek to keep series alive at their unlikely home-away-from-home
Ben Stokes on track for Pakistan tour comeback after hamstring tear
“Probably one of the things I can improve on this week and the next is making sure you don’t do that,” Pope said. “You walk off the pitch and, when you’re batting three, you get your pads straight on and you know you could be in whenever. That’s probably the main thing – not thinking about all the decisions you just make on the pitch. Just thinking ‘right, now it’s time to bat’.”Batters are creatures of habit, but Pope’s habits at first-drop have only been grooved over the last couple of years. He has always tried to maintain a chilled disposition while waiting his turn, keeping one eye on the television to spot the amount of seam and swing on offer, occasionally venturing onto the balcony for a sit-down. He has always enjoyed a wander around the dressing room, nattering to team-mates without imposing himself on other people’s routines, which is a rare skill itself.Harry Brook practises his golf swing as Ollie Pope looks on•Getty ImagesSince June 2022 – when he first appeared at No.3 for England – those conversations have been a little shorter and with pads on. “It’s probably what I’ve learned over the last two years – save as much energy for when you’re out in the middle rather than just watching every single ball too closely.”That Joe Root is in the dressing room is of some help to Pope’s pursuit of a new equilibrium. What advice there has been thus far has centred on the need for a routine to shed how much “more taxing” fielding becomes when you’re the one setting the fields.If Root can offer anything, it is empathy, because balance was something he never truly found. He skipped between No.3 and No.4 with all the certainty of a man holding his phone out the window looking for better reception.He averaged 46.44 across 64 Tests as captain, lower than an overall career average of 50.33 and drastically below the 53.82 across the 80 Tests he has played without the armband. It’s worth noting his best run as captain came from the start of 2021, averaging 54.36 in his final 20 Tests. England lost 11 and won just four of those. It speaks volumes of Root’s candour he has not turned to Pope and shouted, “Ditch it and run!””I’ve got two more weeks of the series, it’s not like I’m saying I’m fatigued about it,” Pope said, assuring all this was very much a “him” problem rather than one for the rest of English cricket to concern themselves with. “It’s just finding a way to compartmentalise.”Not for the first time, Pope has brought honesty to the table. He was one of the first to talk of the challenges of bio-secure living during the Covid-19 summer of 2020, speaking openly about the emotional tax of being stuck in a hotel that overlooks the ground you had just toiled on earlier that day. Whether talking about the early shift to Test cricket when he debuted at Lord’s in 2018, restricted bubble life or getting to grips with a new batting position, he has always been forthcoming.Regardless of how Pope’s batting goes over the last two Tests of the summer, Stokes and Brendon McCullum will give him leeway. He has been their pet project, not just as a No.3, where he is still averaging 42.60, but as a vice-captain, a move taken to coax leadership out of him. And they are more than satisfied with how he has acquitted himself over the last two years.But Pope is desperate to get this right. It is as much about the captaincy as a career that feels in a constant state of flux. Even this year alone, a blockbuster 196 against India and a calming 121 against West Indies surround 11 scores of 23 or lower across 16 innings.Set against a rock-solid set of openers, a thriving middle order in which Harry Brook is emerging as the tallest pillar, Pope is under the most scrutiny. Should Dan Lawrence cash in his “free hit” as a makeshift opener in the absence of Zak Crawley, or Jordan Cox get the opportunity to press his claims further, there is a future where a tough decision might need to be made.This summer, Ben Foakes, Jonny Bairstow and Jack Leach were discarded from the Test side. Moeen Ali, recently Jos Buttler’s vice-captain, has been left out of the white ball sides to face Australia. Dawid Malan, once regarded as the best international T20 batter in the world, announced his retirement on Wednesday having been deemed surplus to requirements. This is a management group not afraid of grasping the nettle.All of which brings us back to that earlier quandary of balance. Pope may be one game into a three-game stint leading this team, but it probably would not hurt him to broach it more selfishly and tip the scales one way.Captaincy may be an honour. But batting needs to be his primary focus for a reliable future.