Yas Rana was at Lord's to watch Ollie Pope play an innings typical of a Test No.3, if not typical of him.
Much of the first day at Lord’s was slow. England’s scoring rate – which dropped to as low as 2.70 runs per over – was more SpoonsBall than Bazball. The pitch was sluggish, as was the outfield. India’s over-rate was funereal; only 49 overs were delivered by the tea break.
During the wicketless afternoon session, England accumulated a steady 70 runs from 24 overs. At one stage, 29 deliveries passed with a single run being scored. Central to England’s new-found restraint was Ollie Pope, whose 104-ball 44 was comfortably his slowest 30-plus score since moving up to No. 3 three seasons ago.
It was a curious innings for a player in a curious predicament. On paper, speculation over his position in the side is extraordinarily harsh. Pope averages more than 40 at three, a position England have historically struggled to fill. He has two hundreds in his last three Tests and since the start of last year only Joe Root and Shubman Gill have scored more Test centuries than Pope’s five (the same number of hundreds, as it happens, as Crawley has in his six-year England career). Yet there remains a sense, especially among those closest to the England set-up, that it is he rather than the perennially inconsistent Crawley whose position is most under threat should England decide they need to find a spot for Jacob Bethell in the XI.
For all his good work, though, Pope still provides his most ardent doubters ammunition for criticism. Fifty-nine Tests into his career – one more Test than Darren Gough played for England – Pope has failed to shrug off the tag of being a frenetic starter. It has been a striking aspect of his series so far. In his five innings so far, he has twice been dismissed for single-figure scores and the three times he’s passed 20, he has fallen shortly after recommencing his innings after an interval.
There were times when Pope failed to convince today. He was dropped at gully first ball – though had it been taken, it would have been the catch of the series – and had a thick edge fall short of second slip two deliveries later. He could easily have been out twice before truly getting into his innings. His dismissal on 44 was soft, too, loosely driving at the first ball after tea.
Pope has never really been the archetypal three. He likes to get bat on ball, and rarely leaves deliveries alone. When he scores big runs he normally does so quickly.
This was not the case today, as he combatted a slow pitch and probing Indian bowling to consolidate the innings alongside Joe Root after England lost two wickets in an over to Nitish Kumar Reddy.
Last year, Surrey head honcho Alec Stewart urged Pope to “just follow Joe Root” in everything he does on the Sky Cricket podcast. Today at Lord’s, while not always batting with total control, Pope followed Root’s lead in reining it in and ensuring England denied India making any further early inroads in the game.
At the close, the score read 251-4, an old school day of Test cricket and an old school number three’s day’s work from Pope. He denied India a third early wicket, delayed Harry Brook’s potential entry point from the 15th to 50th over and added 109 crucial runs alongside Root.
In difficult circumstances, Pope displayed admirable adaptation – a virtue this England side have been accused of lacking. It was neither a flawless innings nor the headline performance of the day but it was an extremely useful hand. More generally, Pope is not a flawless three nor one of the more feted players in the England team, but more regularly than he is generally given credit, scores significant runs in difficult circumstances.
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