Ollie Pope: England’s stand-in captain finds the stability on day one towards Sri Lanka in Ben Stokes’ absence | Cricket Information

In a bygone period, it might need appeared that, with three initials and a public-school training, Oliver John Douglas Pope would have been destined to captain the England Check workforce in some unspecified time in the future.

An indication of the instances, although, is how the method taken with the Surrey batter has been to nurture the abilities noticed in him by Ben Stokes along with his appointment as vice-captain, first on an unofficial foundation after which formally since Might final yr.

Pope could not have anticipated to be taking the reins as quickly as this summer season’s three-Check sequence towards Sri Lanka, which started in Manchester on Wednesday, however Stokes has lengthy sensed the 26-year-old is an ideal option to proceed championing his philosophy of attacking cricket.

“There is a reason why I appointed him as vice-captain,” Stokes, out for the remainder of the summer season with a hamstring harm, advised Sky Sports activities. “I think he has a great sense of the game, and we are very like-minded in terms of plans.

“I all the time discovered that when he was coming to me, it was one thing I already had at the back of my thoughts.

“He was the obvious choice as captain, and I think he has grown into his role as No 3 then giving him the vice-captaincy has taken him to another level as a leader.”

The stand-in captain’s lot just isn’t all the time a contented one – simply ask Chris Cowdrey or Mark Butcher about their experiences within the job – but Pope might hardly have imagined day one at Emirates Outdated Trafford would go in addition to it did, significantly after he misplaced the toss.

He was fairly pleased with reverse quantity Dhananjaya de Silva’s determination to bat first, regardless of the intense daylight, and much more so when Sri Lanka had been decreased to 6-3 within the seventh over after which 92-6 shortly after lunch.

The batting of Sri Lanka’s captain, who top-scored on 74, and debutant Milan Rathnayake, making 72 batting at No 9 on his Check debut, posed the largest problem for Pope although because the pair dug in and made England toil within the area in the course of the latter a part of the afternoon session.

Having to bowl spin from each ends attributable to dangerous mild, bringing Joe Root into the assault alongside Shoaib Bashir, gave the brand new skipper one thing else to contemplate as effectively. But he managed to juggle all of these points to assist guarantee Sri Lanka had been finally bowled out for 236 late within the day, with England reaching 22 with out loss on the shut.

Pope had beforehand spoken of his intention to maintain doing issues in the identical method which has labored for Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum over the previous two years, though Mel Jones anticipated there would nonetheless be instances when he must lean on his personal expertise too.

“He’s mentioned a couple of times how it’s going to be the same message, just told differently,” Jones advised Sky Sports activities.

“There would have been moments for Ollie Pope where he might have thought ‘I might try this’ but then thought ‘No, that’s probably not the way we want to go about this’.

“That is going to be the largest problem, to go along with the intestine really feel from his expertise of the sport and what the experiences with the England workforce are.

“That will be the conversation piece with Ben and Baz [McCullum] when he comes off, about how he’s managed all of that.”

As any good captain is aware of although, it’s not nearly your self, but additionally about how you’re employed with the opposite senior members of the workforce to make sure a consistency in messaging in each the dressing room and the sphere.

Nasser Hussain had a number of of those that he performed with for England each earlier than and in the course of the 45 Assessments he skippered the nationwide workforce for, and he was in little doubt Pope had settled effectively into the function he has been developed for.

Not solely that, however he believes the expertise serves as essential for each Pope and the long-term growth of the workforce he could effectively in the future succeed Stokes on the helm of on a everlasting foundation.

“You should have leaders in that dressing room that aren’t captains,” Hussain advised Sky Sports activities. “We’re dedicating as we speak to Graham Thorpe – he was a pacesetter with out placing that armband on. Chris Woakes is like that and a pacesetter as effectively.

“Your first job is to win the game in front of you, but this summer is all about win your six Test matches and look to the future.

“It’s a must to see does it sit comfortably on Ollie Pope.”

Although still around the camp in his absence, Stokes has been determined to empower Pope to go and do the job his way rather than be worried about trying to second-guess himself with the captain looking over his shoulder.

Woakes, who finished as the pick of England’s bowlers in Sri Lanka’s first innings with 3-32, was impressed with how at ease he was with stepping up to the top job after earning the respect of his team-mates in his role as vice-captain.

“He’s been good,” Woakes stated. “He doesn’t want to be Ben; he wants to do it his own way which is great.

“He does a very good function as vice-captain whereas him and Ben are on the market, they usually’re continually speaking.

“He’ll probably naturally pick up on what Ben does, but I wouldn’t say he was any different. He was just himself.

“He was definitely on it, making an attempt to speak along with his bowlers, speak about fields, but additionally fairly chilled which was nice.”

Watch England’s first Test against Sri Lanka, from Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester, live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event from 10.15am on Thursday 11am first ball)

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