In the week when the Gallagher brothers smoked the peace pipe and announced the return of Oasis, Ollie Pope was not exactly looking back in anger at Manchester. The five-wicket victory against Sri Lanka made for a bright start as England’s stand-in captain and the only downside – two failures with the bat – was still a lesson learned.
Before the second Test at Lord’s that gets under way on Thursday, Pope admitted he had struggled to “compartmentalise” the dual roles of captain and batter at Old Trafford.
Already grappling with the demands of No 3 even before being adorned with the stripes, he had thoughts of running things out in the field swirling in his head while he was – all too briefly – waiting to bat. “That’s probably the main thing, not thinking about all the decisions you just made on the pitch, but: ‘Right, now it’s time to bat,’” said Pope, who made two scores of six after walking out to the middle in the seventh and sixth over respectively.
“If there are things you did well or badly, you can reflect on those at the end of the day’s play.
“I almost compare [that Test] to another debut. After day one on my Test debut, I was knackered and we barely did anything. [So] it’s about having the two things separate. That’s something I’ve spoken to Joe Root about as well – a very successful England captain who did Joe Root things with the bat throughout.
“We spoke about how it’s more taxing in the field and it’s about finding a little routine and doing small things. It’s nothing massive, but finding a way once you do get your pads on to get into your old routine of how you go out and bat.”
Like a number of England captains, Root did indeed start his 64 Tests in charge with a surge of runs. But the returns slightly thinned out during the middle phase and it was only in his final year, with the team in disarray and careering towards the nadir of that sorry away Ashes defeat in 2021-22, that his form became celestial once again.
By that stage, it was probably a case of Root channelling his energies into the one area he could truly influence. Bar a late return for his final series against West Indies in the Caribbean, he had also realised the difficulty of trying to lead from No 3, where he averaged 34.4 as captain, in favour of his preferred spot at No 4.
Pope has no such luxury, however, with his deployment at first drop one of the first calls made by Ben Stokes in 2022 and Root, back to No 1 in the Test batting rankings, is unlikely to do a Steve Smith by seeking a late-career promotion. As Pope once again stressed after training on Wednesday, this is Stokes’s England team.
Given the management’s overall backing of Pope, and perhaps a touch more leeway in light of the additional demands of this series, they will probably stay loyal to the right-hander as regards his spot overall. Although, having been feast or famine these past two years with five centuries and 18 scores below 20, he could do with a score.
The captaincy side of the equation may also become a little trickier for him this week. Chris Woakes, father of the house at 35, is pushing through quadriceps soreness and Mark Wood is missing altogether. Until his series-ending thigh injury midway through the third innings at Old Trafford, and much like during the series against West Indies, Wood’s extra pace was visibly unsettling batters.
London is expected to be hotter this week and Sri Lanka, said to be undercooked in Manchester but still found striving for victory on the fourth day, will surely be better for the run out. Olly Stone steps up for Wood in a heartening return from his own injury battles, with a five-man attack retained. But while able to touch 90mph, he operates at mid-to-high 80mph generally. For all the talk of England ssembling a battery of quicks, Wood remains in a group of one.
On one level, Wood’s impact will be felt by Sri Lanka, namely the nasty delivery when Dinesh Chandimal escaped with only a bruised right thumb but unable to keep wicket in the fourth innings. Chandimal will play as a specialist batter here and though Kusal Mendis deputised in Manchester, he has been dropped and the gloves now pass to Nishan Madushka, with Pathum Nissanka coming into the XI. Lahiru Kumara, a brawny quick who bowls a heavy ball, peps up their attack.
England (confirmed): Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope (capt), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (wkt), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, Olly Stone, Shoaib Bashir.
Sri Lanka (confirmed): Dimuth Karunaratne, Pathum Nissanka, Nishan Madushka (wk), Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Dhananjaya De Silva (c), Kamindu Mendis, Prabath Jayasuriya, Asitha Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Milan Rathnayake.
Sri Lanka have also not lost in London since 1991, even if that famous victory at the Oval in 1998, inspired by Muttiah Muralitharan, was followed by five draws at Lord’s. Buoyed up by the second‑innings century from Kamindu Mendis, and against an England XI that has a stand-in captain, a makeshift opener in Dan Lawrence and has lost its most fearsome weapon in Wood, the tourists have no reason to simply slide away.
