Ollie Pope vows to ‘block out’ criticism as runs dry up during captaincy stint

Ollie Pope has pledged to “block out” criticism of his batting, as the scrutiny on him mounts following 30 runs in four innings against Sri Lanka. England may have a perfect record under his captaincy, but Pope has come under fire after failing to reach 20 across two Tests standing in for the injured Ben Stokes.

Pope managed scores of 1 and 17 during England’s 190-run win at Lord’s, and the manner of his dismissals suggested that his bid to “compartmentalise” the captaincy had failed. In the first innings, he top-edged a wild pull to square leg; in the second, with England setting up a declaration, he was caught at deep point (the only man back on the off-side) when top-edging an uppercut.

“I’m not going to put down my average shot to the fact that I was captain,” Pope said. “I’ll learn from it and move on, but I think I’ve managed my own game better throughout this match… The second innings was slightly different, because we were really trying to push the game forward, but I was very disappointed with the shot I played in the first innings so early on.

“I’m not going to hide behind the fact that I’ve had two poor games with the bat. That’s the way cricket is sometimes and form comes and goes. But I think the best players are the ones who can draw a line under it and have a fresh start next week. Hopefully, I can put a score together.”

Pope has long had a reputation as being frenetic early in his innings. Steve James of The Times has labelled him “the worst starter since prawn cocktail”, and Pope has now been dismissed within his first 20 balls 32 times in 85 Test innings. Despite coming into the series in a decent vein of form, following a century and two fifties against West Indies, he conceded that his nervous starts are an issue that he is trying to address.

“The last two games I’ve had, they’re learning games for me,” he said. “It definitely is something that I’m still trying to improve in my game, and obviously the way that I start my innings especially is something that I want to keep on improving – and then when I do get in, it’s trying to cash in as well.”

Michael Vaughan has been particularly critical, labelling Pope “an insecure human being” and “not the kind of personality” that should be England captain. Pope said that had expected to find himself under more scrutiny while in temporary charge, and that his primary aim was to avoid “overthinking” ahead of Friday’s third Test at The Oval.

“I’m not surprised,” he said. “Chatting to Stokesy before this series, when you’re captain as well, you’re going to attract a lot more [criticism]. To be honest, it is just important to block it out and keep staying close with the people around you. There’s a lot of voices, a lot of guys who want to have their say – some past cricketers as well – and that’s completely fine.

“Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but it’s important for us as a team and me to stay and keep trusting the people in the four walls, because that’s not going to help me get back into my best form. Sometimes, when you have two bad games, it can feel a lot worse than it is because of the noise that’s surrounding it.”

“For me, it’s just trying to stay as level as I can and keep on trusting the people around me, putting my work in, and not really overthinking it, to be honest. When I went and made good runs in that West Indies series, that’s exactly what I was playing like, so there’s no real need for me to get too involved in what people are saying.”

Pope has sought advice from Joe Root, whose twin hundreds set up England’s series-clinching win at Lord’s, since taking on the captaincy. “Any batter in England can learn a fair bit off him,” he said. “Form is something that comes and goes… for me, it’s not overthinking it, keep training hard, and going into the next game, it’s a completely fresh week, a fresh start.”

It will be Pope’s first Test at his home ground – where he has scored 11 first-class hundreds for Surrey – since 2022. “Obviously it’s a great place to bat,” he said. “It’s always special getting back to The Oval, where I’ve played all my county cricket, so hopefully there will be a great crowd in. Everyone will be excited to get to The Oval.”

England have not won every Test in a home season since 2004, and will be pushing for a summer sweep. “It would be a pretty cool thing to look back on,” Pope said. “We’ve played some really good cricket throughout this summer, and obviously had a tough winter away in India where the results weren’t what we wanted on the return trip. So to get used to winning games back-to-back is really pleasing for us.”