He is considered a big part of the future of England cricket – often being looked at as a potential successor when Ben Stokes has had his stint as skipper – but Ollie Pope’s inconsistency may have finally caught up with the Surrey batsman.
Though Pope is part of the Ashes squad that would aim to reverse a decade and a half of pain suffered Down Under from November to January, the 27-year-old has been upstaged as vice-captain by Harry Brook, who is already the designated England captain in white-ball formats.
Pope often starts a series with a bang before tapering off as the games go by. In the memorable five-match home rubber against India that finished 2-2, he started with a hundred in the first innings of the opening Test, but had only one 50+ score in the rest of the series, not a return expected of a quality No.3 batsman. His average – in the mid 30s after 61 Tests – also needs improvement.
Brook, the 26-year-old Yorkshireman, on the other hand, averages more than 57 after 30 Tests, and had two hundreds, a 99 and another score above 50 in the Tests against India.
It prompted England cricket’s managing director Rob Key to stop short of guaranteeing that Pope will play the first Ashes Test in Perth starting on November 21.
“There is not like an elaborate scheme where if we take the vice-captaincy off Ollie Pope, it makes him easier to drop,” Key was quoted as saying by BBC Sport. “All the tours we’ve done, you never make your decisions too early because things happen. We tend to leave the decisions as late as possible. We’ll find out what that XI will be probably two days before the first Test.”
He did, however, categorically say that Brook is a “better leader” than Pope.
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“He (Brook) is the best person for the job,” Key said. “He’s had more experience in leadership now. Harry Brook deserves it for the way that he has done it.”
Going into the India series, Pope had been under some pressure with the chatter around Jacob Bethell, but the fact that the latter had played very little first-class cricket in recent times worked against him.
“We’ll see a bit more of Jacob Bethell playing in white-ball cricket before the Ashes,” Key, a former England batsman, said. “We know a fair amount about Ollie Pope, but Jacob Bethell will continue to get experience.”
Pope had been vice-captain since May 2023 and has stepped into the captaincy role when Stokes wasn’t available, including the final Test of the summer against India at The Oval.
The postAfter demotion from vice-captaincy, no guarantee that Ollie Pope will start first Ashes Test at Perth | Cricket News appeared first on Indian Express
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