It is better to be lucky than good. Fortunately for England, Ollie Pope is both.
England’s No3 has had a peculiar year. Starting in Hyderabad in January, he played one of the greatest innings in Test history.
His 196 was legacy-defining, as well as match-winning. India head coach Rahul Dravid described it as the best innings he had seen by an overseas player in history. It was a remarkable moment that rubber-stamped what those in the upper echelons of the sport had been telling people for years: that the boy can play.
But then the runs dried up. In his next eight innings across the India tour he mustered just 118 runs, including a pair in the Fourth Test. Rather than his batting style being described as ‘busy’, it was instead being described as ‘frenetic’. And then, when he came back to England to play for Surrey, the runs did not return; 10 innings bringing a high score of 63 and an average of 23.
“I wouldn’t say [I had] doubts,” Pope said on Thursday. “But you are like, ‘Why’s everyone else in the country scoring runs in county cricket but England’s No3 isn’t going out and averaging 50 this summer?’”
All of a sudden, England’s vice-captain was the next cab off the rank in the discourse diaries. With a settled top six and Pope the least in-form batter of the lot, a few early failures against West Indies and discussion would turn to whether the Surrey man really was the right man for the job.
A first-innings 57 in the First Test at Lord’s cooled the potential for ‘x innings since Pope’s last 50’ chatter, but it did not satisfy either his or England’s desire for runs. And in the early stages on Thursday, that trend did not appear to be changing. While Ben Duckett slashed his way to 71 at better than a run-a-ball, Pope was more circumspect. His half-century arrived off 81 balls and shortly after he had been dropped in the gully. Then, shortly after reaching his half-century, he was dropped again in the slips. “My luck wasn’t with me in my county stint,” Pope said. “But every now and then you get a bit of luck in international cricket and it’s just trying to make it count.”
And make it count he did. Just as in Hyderabad, where an early look of unease was replaced by a later look of dominance, Pope kicked on to reach Test century No6.
“It’s always a special moment getting to 100,” he said. “I felt really good at Lord’s, but to make it count and spend a lot of time in the middle is really pleasing.”
Pope would be within his rights to question what the fuss is all about. Far greater players than him have struggled in India and he can point to a stellar body of work at No3 to dissuade any doubters over his worthiness to bat there.
In the 21st century, Jonathan Trott is held up as the benchmark for what a great English No3 looks like. He averaged 45 from his 46 matches in that position; Pope 44 in 22. Trott made seven centuries while batting there; Pope already has five.
“It’s kind of like a play and miss,” Pope said of his attitude to riding his luck on day one and the dropped catches. “Sometimes I slash at a wide one and miss, and think, ‘I’m lucky I didn’t nick that’. I use it as a lesson, think it’s not the option to take. Batting, you are never going to be completely perfect.”
Pope credited a few sessions with England batting coach Marcus Trescothick for the return of runs, but in his own words, “cricket goes in swings and roundabouts”, and this was as much a return to the norm for Pope than an innings required to be examined at length.
The body of work behind him now is such that runs, in favourable conditions, are to be expected. His quality will see him through the rest of the summer and the winter without too much trouble, with the next real question facing him being the arrival of India in 2025 and the away Ashes.
Pope has struggled against high-quality spin during his career. During the 2021-22 Ashes, it was against Nathan Lyon, and in India, well, it was against everyone. That question still remains.
It is now more than two years ago that Pope picked up the phone to Ben Stokes and volunteered to bat at three, knowing it was the only spot available. And two-and-a-bit years later, it is innings like Thursday’s why Stokes continues to call him back.
