Stand-in captain Ollie Pope has defended England’s careless batting display in their Third Test defeat to Sri Lanka, insisting a “lack of hunger” was not to blame for the twin collapses that cost his side the chance to complete a perfect home summer.
England had won all five of their Tests this summer - three against West Indies and two against Sri Lanka - heading into the series finale at Kia Oval and looked well set to make it six out of six when reaching stumps on day one in command at 221 for three, with Pope himself having made a brilliant hundred.
However, the hosts failed to make the most of that position as their final seven wickets fell for 64 runs at the end of the first innings, before they were bowled out for just 156 in the second.
England’s cavalier approach led to accusations of complacency following five dominant victories over West Indies and Sri Lanka, but Pope insisted that was not the case.
“I don’t think it's a lack of hunger at all, especially with with guys like Harry Brook and Joe Root,” he said. “They’re always guys who will never get bored of batting.
“I know from outside it might look like that but they’re guys who want to go and score hundreds every game.
"I wouldn’t say it’s a lack of an edge or not having that desire to put together a massive score. It’s just, as can happen in cricket and there’s been a good gap since we last [collapsed]. It can happen. On another day those balls might go for four and then they’re off and running.”
England spoke openly at the start of the summer about their plans to develop a ruthless streak, after squandering several strong positions both during last summer’s drawn Ashes series and the winter’s 4-1 defeat in India.
For much of the West Indies and Sri Lanka series, they have come good on that promise, but slipped back into old habits here.
As well as a lax batting effort, Pope’s decision to bowl off-spin for 17 overs on the second afternoon has come under scrutiny. Bad light meant England were prevented from bowling their seamers throughout that period, but rather than take his team off, Pope chose to persist with slower options as Sri Lanka milked the runs.
“The thought process was just trying to take a few more wickets,” Pope explained. “We created a few chances that were put down and that’s part of the game, that can happen. Had they gone to hand, whether it would have changed the result is kind of irrelevant.
"I know the sun was out all day yesterday [day three], but in my mind there was going to be a fair bit of rain about so I thought it was a great opportunity where if we got one wicket we felt like we could get two or three.”
Bad light was an issue throughout the Test match, most farcically when play was stopped for almost three hours in the middle of day one, with stumps called early on each of the first three days amid the gloom.
There was a full house in at the Oval - Pope’s home ground - on day two, but the Surrey batter insisted providing a spectacle for the fans was not the key factor in his decision to keep his spinners on.
“Of course, we want to entertain and we’ve made that clear,” he added. “I didn’t really want to drag the boys off and not give the crowd some good viewing.
“But if I felt like it was going to really going to affect the result then that’s a different question. We want to be a team that wins games of cricket but also entertaining’s part of what we do.
“If I felt like that was the reason we lost the game, of course I would have taken us off. But it’s not to do with that, it’s to do with us wanting to take a couple more wickets.”
