Ollie Pope Provides Updates On Ben Stokes' Availability For 2nd Test Against Pakistan, Says, 'He's Training Really Well'

ENG vs PAK, 1st Test: Ollie Pope, who is England's stand-in skipper has provided updates on Ben Stokes' availability for the next Test match against the Men in Green in Multan. It should be noted here that Stokes didn't feature in the series opener owing to a hamstring injury due to which he also missed the whole Test series against Sri Lanka as well.

But before the second Test match against the Shan Masood-led side, Pope reckoned that Stokes was performing brilliantly in the practice session and is looking forward to returning to action again. But at the same time, he also said that he isn't 100% sure about Stokes' return for the next Test match.

“I’m not 100%. He’s been training well this week. He’s as keen as ever to get playing again, so fingers crossed he’s all good,” Pope was quoted as saying to Sky Sports.

At the same time, ex-England skipper Nasser Hussain has revealed that once Stokes returns to the playing XI, then there are high chances that Pope would be dropped as he was dismissed for a duck and also dropped a catch during the second innings.

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England's record-breaking first innings

Talking about the match, the Ollie Pope-led side thrashed Pakistan by an innings and 47 runs on the last day of the series opener in Multan. While batting first, the hosts posted a mammoth target of 556 runs, on the back of hundreds from Abdullah Shafique (102), skipper Shan Masood (150), and Agha Salman (104).

In reply, England scored 823/7, which is the fourth-highest total in the history of this sport. Joe Root brought up his highest Test score of 262 runs whereas Harry Brook became just the sixth England batter to have scored a triple century in the longest format. He scored 317 runs off 322 balls, in which he smashed 29 fours and three sixes, and also scored his fourth century in Pakistan after playing in four Test matches.

On the back of these batting performances, the visitors took a huge lead of 267 runs during the first innings and skittled Pakistan out for just 220 runs during the second innings and won the historic match. Due to this, the Shan Masood-led side became the first team in the history of the format to lose a match by an innings despite scoring 500 runs during the first innings.