ENG vs SL: England's stand-in skipper Ollie Pope wants to lead the side from the front and score plenty of runs for the team in the second Test match against Sri Lanka at Lord's. Pope, who replaced Ben Stokes, who pulled out of this Test series due to a hamstring injury, won his first Test match as the stand-in skipper last week. But the youngster, who usually bats at the No.3 position, could only score 12 runs in both the innings in Manchester.
Analyzing both of his roles, Pope shed light on how he aims to separate both the roles of being a skipper and a batter. "I learned how I can have my batting and captaincy separate," Pope was quoted as saying to BBC Sport. "For me, it is about as soon as we get off the pitch, drawing a line under that and then focus on batting", he revealed.
Pope has been England's vice-captain for almost two years and has got lots of experience which he is planning to use to his team's advantage in this Test series. He might be the captain of the side but his position as the No.3 batter has been scrutinised due to his inconsistent performances as compared to the other six top batters. But at the same time, Pope is still hopeful to bounce back in style.
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"The runs didn't come for me, but for the team to get the win, that's the most important thing. Hopefully, over the next couple of weeks, I can put some good scores together and reward the team with some runs", he added.
He has a batting average of 34.64 after playing in 47 Test matches and is quite aware of the importance of scoring runs, especially at a time when the team is suffering from key players getting injured like Ben Stokes, opener Zak Crawley, and fast bowler Mark Wood. Just four players from the last Ashes Test squad against Australia will be playing in this Test match at Lord's on Thursday.
While trying to balance both batting and captaincy, Pope took advice from Joe Root, who has plenty of experience in both roles. Joe Root, who is the ex-England Test skipper, had led the team from the front in 64 Test matches and also batted brilliantly at an average of 46.44 in his term. He too faced a lot of challenges as the skipper but ended his term on a high and also laid a platform for youngsters like Pope.
"It's nothing massive, but it's about finding a way to get into your old routine of how you go out and bat. It's just making sure that I keep doing what has brought success over the last couple of years and having that on repeat. It's just finding a way to compartmentalize. Chatting to Rooty, he's got a great cricket brain and is England's best batter, so we just bounce a few ideas off each other", he concluded.