England’s Ollie Pope still covets No 3 slot but happy to have ‘fun’ further down | New Zealand v England 2024
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Ollie Pope is enjoying wicket-taking and getting down the order. That was clear after the first two days in Christchurch, where his glovework went unnoticed for the right reasons and his precious 77 with the bat helped swing matters for England’s way.
But even if England’s vice-captain continues in the dual role until the end of this tour of New Zealand – Durham’s Ollie Robinson starts as an alternate after Jordan Cox’s broken thumb – there remains a desire to resume his place at No.3. This despite Pope leaving the series defeat with 2-1 in Pakistan with just 59 runs to his name and questions swirled about his fitness for the demands of the role.
Speaking after he and Harry Brooke’s 132 not out pulled England out of the mud on the second day of the first Test at Hagley Oval, their 151-run fifth-wicket stand pulled away after a difficult start, Pope stressed his approach was the same. as it would have been if it had gone out on the first fall.
“I want to be number 3; I want to keep trying to make it mine,” Pope said. “I’ve had too many low scores there, but I’ve also been able to put some good shots together this year. It’s definitely a job I want to keep doing.
“If I was batting at three, I would try to play exactly the same way I did today. The biggest difference with three is that you set the tone a lot more. If you play well, you can put your team in a really strong position.
“The fun thing about six is you can go in at 350 for four and it can be your job to push the game forward. [Or] you can get your team out of a tough situation. Both roles are a lot of fun, just a little different.”
The other difference between this Test match and Pakistan – beyond the obvious wobble in conditions after England were dumped out on purpose-made surfaces in Multan and Rawalpindi – was clearly between the ears as Pope sat down for some advice from Surrey’s outgoing director of cricket, Alec Stewart , between rounds.
He explained: “I didn’t make Stewie throw balls at the dog stick, I think it’s too high for that. We had an open discussion and it’s probably healthy to talk to someone on the outside who has been watching you.
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“Sometimes it’s good to have that opinion. I gained a lot from going back and talking to him. Pakistan was not an easy tour and I was not good enough to find a way. It was really important for me to draw a line under it.
“It was more about ‘what does it look like when I’m at my best?’ because that was a frustrating thing: I wasn’t getting to 20 or 30 to allow myself to get to that big score. We talked about that calm in the crease. When I’m playing well, there’s this clarity about how I want to play, not trying to rush to 20 or 30.”
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