Amid the numerous congregations of England’s brains trust in the dying overs of last week’s Edgbaston thriller, Ollie Pope’s boyish presence stood out against those of his more seasoned associates, two wizened seamers with 340-odd Tests between them and the team’s captains past and present.
Pope, naturally inquisitive when it comes to tactics, has been milling around these meetings for a while, until recently under the guise of convenience as the man usually tasked with fielding closest to the bat. These days, though, no excuse is needed. With his closest age peers, the likes of Harry Brook and Zak Crawley, posted to the fence, here was the reminder Abduwali Muse might have more diplomatically offered Tom Hanks across the wheelhouse of the Maersk Alabama: look at me, I am the vice-captain now.
Pope’s formal ascendancy to the post went a little under-analysed at the time, partly because it had been pre-flagged during the winter, more so because it was announced in the same bombshell press release as Ben Foakes’s axing and Jofra Archer’s latest stress fracture.
The theory was sound, a bit of early succession planning and a smart move to bring one of the dressing room’s younger members across the age divide and into the inner circle (all but two of this squad are either yet to reach their 26th birthday or past their 32nd). With Stokes’s fitness still unknown, the potential reality of the still baby-faced 25-year-old captaining England in the heat of an Ashes Test was, perhaps, a little harder to envisage.
Thankfully, it is not one that has yet come to pass, nor does it look likely to, with Stokes vowing to be on the park unless he cannot walk (although that possibility should not be discounted, either).
And so, as Pope arrives at Lord’s this week with England 1-0 down, his duties as vice-skip and sounding board remain secondary to that of the other high office he holds: scoring runs from No3.
Of all England’s squandered starts in Birmingham, Pope’s were least frustrating, trapped by a clever delivery from Nathan Lyon in the first innings, then beaten by an unplayable one from Pat Cummins in the second. A tally of 45 runs means he is already comfortably outstripping Marnus Labuschagne in the duel at first drop.
None of that, however, offers much mitigation for the fact that Australia are yet to see the best of a batting talent talked up (at least until Brook’s emergence) as the pick of his generation. And if they have not seen it, well, then what does it matter? Australian opinion of county cricket is not, it is fair to say, sky-high, and if Ollie Robinson bowls “nude nuts”, then heaven knows how you categorise the tame Irish attack against which Pope raced to the fastest double-hundred Lord’s has ever witnessed this month.
“I know that you can be remembered by Ashes series and playing amazing knocks,” Pope said. “It does give you that extra bit of fire within yourself.”
White, well-spoken and educated at the independent Cranleigh School, where his great, great, great, great-grandfather was once head, Pope was probably not ideally placed to comment yesterday as English cricket braced itself for a report that, among other failings, criticised cricket’s lack of inclusivity and neglect of state schools. None of that is his fault, of course, but leaders must face up to awkward questions (Stokes is due to speak this morning) and Pope did at least recognise his privilege.
“I think there is a lot more we can keep doing as players,” he said. “As an England team, we’re in a great position where we have got all eyes on us. It is definitely something we’re aware of and definitely something we can keep driving forward.”
Pope’s route to the top is certainly no stain on him, and his development remains a feather in the cap of a system that today will come under rightful fire. But there almost certainly is an extent to which that posh, private-school persona contributes to the Australian conviction that he is one who might be got at. Pope was among the England players to struggle most under the strain of a typically fiery Ashes grilling Down Under 18 months ago, averaging 11 and being mercifully dropped mid-series, only to be thrown to the wolves again out of necessity.
He looks and feels a different player now. With England in peril, this week would be a fine time to prove it.
