by As I watched Ollie Pope’s game-changing performances in Hyderabad at the weekend my mind kept going back to 2017, and a trip to India with an England under-19 team that included three players who has since broken into the senior Test series. up in Pope, Harry Brook and Will Jacks. Ollie struggled on the tour: he averaged 21.5 in both Tests, and got out many times.
Looking at the Indian players, the consensus was that they either played brilliantly with a straight bat, shots with low risk but potentially high reward, or they managed to remove the ball and hit their feet. back into spaces on both sides of the cage. Only if the ball was going down the side of the wicket would they think of playing a sweep. For England players, often against left-arm spinners who were trying to swing wicket-to-wicket, the sweep was a dangerous thing, because if you miss you are lbw or bowled. That was almost the mantra of the tour, but Ollie bucked the trend and was punished.
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I remember being in Brisbane once during the Ashes, and I happened to be standing in the viewing area near the players’ dressing rooms towards the end of lunch when Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen were about to to resume the bowels of England. Cook was in the zone and wasn’t really talking to anyone, but KP came over and we chatted for a few minutes. I told him I was about to go to Sri Lanka with England Lions and he said: “Oh, twist. You just pick the distance and that’s it.” And with that he put on his helmet and gloves and went out to face Mitchell Johnson. I liked the certainty of that statement, and it has always impressed me.
When facing spin, if you see the ball going up out of the bowler’s hand you have two options: you can go down the pitch, hit it full and take control that way, or you can escape from the ball. , give yourself more reaction time and play off the back foot. That’s what we were working on, but Ollie saw things differently. By then he had already had a bit of first team cricket and so was one of the senior players in the group, and maybe it was that, or the expectation he put on himself, or the unfamiliar conditions before him , it caused. him to struggle.
And of course that experience went through my mind as he turned the first Exam on his head, and I saw the confidence he showed and the enjoyment he took from the difficulty.
Pope is often frenetic at the start of his innings. Sometimes he seems too energetic, almost playing his shot before his feet are in place and starting for runs before he hits the ball. But if he can get through that period he can be successful, especially in a team like this England side where the emphasis is on scoring whatever the situation, which suits him. A lot has been made of the reverse sweeps and reverse sweeps, but equally there were a lot of good shots when he came down the wicket and used his legs, and that was crucial because that he preyed on the Indian bowlers, and forced them to change their line. , length and speed, and the Pope made great use of that.
Of course you don’t make 196 without playing forward defense, but he found a great balance when he mixed a range of defensive shots with the mentality of trying to be proactive all the time, trying to get down the field, or go back. in the belt, or using his various brushes. He has one backsweep where his front leg goes back, his back comes out and he turns his body so that it’s almost like a left hand, and in doing that he goes so far down the wrist that he extends his arms then to give the left hand. bat through in a great sweeping motion he reaches the ball on the full toss and almost takes the field out of play. It’s a technical shot, because it’s very difficult to keep your balance and keep your head still with all that movement going on, and it must have taken a lot of work to make it happen.
From that under 19 tour to what I saw last weekend, Ollie has made significant improvements to his game. I would like to think that even if it was difficult for him at the time, he would have learned a lot on that trip. He was very disappointed with his performances, but he left and went to work. And I saw quickly after that, even within a few years, how he matured as a man and as a player.
Despite that I was surprised when he was made England vice-captain last year, not because of any character problems – he’s always been very mature and likeable, and I’ve no doubt he’ll be very popular in the group and Be a link between the more mature players and the younger generation – but because I wasn’t sure he did enough to establish his place in the side.
If you make someone vice-captain you’re saying: ‘You’re in the team, no matter what happens’, and I think a lot of people in the game weren’t sure he deserved that job. Hyderabad advanced those concerns. He has made big scores before but this was a new level, in difficult and unfamiliar conditions against a big side and his team in a dangerous position. The challenge of course is to do it again, but there is no longer any doubt about Ollie’s ability to perform at the highest level and on the biggest stage.
