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Ollie Pope senses a “real hunger” in England’s batting line-up this summer and believes they could be capable of scoring 600 runs in a single day.
Confidence is riding high in the camp after back-to-back wins over the West Indies – an innings victory at Lord’s and a 241-run success at Trent Bridge.
Pope was one of three centurions in Nottingham, followed by Joe Root and Harry Brook, as Ben Stokes’ side became the first English team in history to pass 400 in both innings of a Test match.
In December 2022, Pope was one of four players to reach three figures as England racked up 506 for four on the opening day against Pakistan in Rawalpindi – just three short of the world record by a team in one day, despite facing just 75 overs.
And the vice-captain believes the side have developed a new focus that could see them go even further into uncharted territory, given the right conditions.
“I think when Baz (head coach Brendon McCullum) and Stokesy took over, we were a batting unit with, not a lack of experience, but a lack of confidence at the time,” he said.
“I feel that everyone has kind of grown into their roles and now there’s a real hunger. There always is a hunger but now there’s an extra bit in that batting line-up and now we feel like we can go on to do even better things. At the time it was about building confidence, now it’s about hopefully becoming more and more ruthless.
There might be a day where we go and get 500 or 600 at some point in the future as well— Ollie Pope
“Sometimes we might score 280-300 in a day but that’s OK and probably because we’re reading situations.
“We saw at Trent Bridge, when the lights were on and it started swinging more that was the time just to manage the game a little bit and that’s something we want to keep getting better and better at.
“But there might be a day where we go and get 500 or 600 at some point in the future as well. That’s a cool thing to have.”
England have not been shy about making big claims in the era of ‘Bazball’, though they remain steadfastly resistant to the term itself.
Drawn series against New Zealand and Australia last year, followed by a 4-1 defeat in India in the new year, checked their momentum somewhat, prompting a bold revamp of the squad.
Out went record wicket-taker James Anderson, 100-cap veteran Jonny Bairstow, wicketkeeper Ben Foakes and established number one spinner Jack Leach.
The transition to fresh blood has been a positive one so far, with Gus Atkinson taking 12 wickets at Lord’s, Shoaib Bashir sealing the series with a five-wicket haul in the second Test and Jamie Smith making a bright start as a keeper-batter.
“I think there were some big calls and some tough calls to make on guys, but it feels at the minute that we’ve got a really nice balanced attack and batting line-up as well,” said Pope.
“We want to give guys confidence and that we’re building the team around them, but at the same time, in international cricket there’s always going to be pressure for spots.
“It’s been shown in the last few weeks that the guys who have come in have done beautifully and we can keep building from here.
“I think winning can become a habit and the way we’ve gone about these two games is high class and that’s shown in the results so far.”
