England Test captain Ben Stokes has condemned those criticizing stand-in skipper Ollie Pope for his subpar batting performance in the current series against Sri Lanka. Stokes, sidelined by a hamstring injury from the 2024 Hundred, saw Pope step in as England captain for the home Test series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka.
Thus far, under the leadership of Pope, the team has won all its five tests. However, in the present Sri Lanka series his bat has not been able to produce much. The 26-year-old holds a mere average of 7.50 runs from four innings he played against the Lankans, who are ahead 2-0 in the series.
Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Stokes commended Pope on his amazing efforts as skipper and condemned English sporting culture.
“Unfortunately, it’s just English culture towards sport. There’s always got to be someone in the firing line and obviously when you’re captain you are more exposed to that. He’s won two games out of two in charge.”
”At the end of the day, I think that’s the thing that he’s concentrated on the most. He obviously wants to be scoring runs and leading from the front. He’s openly admitted that,” said Stokes.
“People are very quick to jump on anything, to someone who’s in the firing line and obviously Pope coming in and being captain whilst I’m injured, you can say he’s the easy target there,” he added.
During the second Sri Lankan Test, Michael Vaughan, ex-captain of the English team was very outspoken regarding Pope’s capacity to take a lead.
“It’s as if people have short memories, come on!” – Ben Stokes
Two Tests ago, Ben Stokes called to mind the batting feats of Ollie Pope against the West Indies, and lambasted those who have short memories. Pope had an outstanding performance with the bat in the three Tests against West Indies before Sri Lanka series averaging almost 60 runs with a century and two half-centuries.
“I think he’s tactically he’s done very well. Let’s not forget before that first Test against Sri Lanka, he’d come off the back of fifty, fifty and a hundred (57, 121 and 51 in consecutive innings against West Indies). And then he doesn’t have one good game and everyone’s saying he is out of form. It’s like ‘short memories people, come on!” said Stokes in the same interaction.
Pope aims to guide England to their sixth consecutive victory and a second consecutive series whitewash in the final Test against Sri Lanka, beginning at the Oval on Friday, September 6.
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