Ollie Pope is preparing to embrace the honour of becoming England’s Test captain but admits it is still Ben Stokes’ team.
Pope will become the 82nd man to take up the role when he leads his country out against Sri Lanka in Wednesday’s first Test, propelled into the hot seat by Stokes’ torn hamstring.
It represents a significant moment for a player who was not certain of his place when Stokes took charge two years ago but he is clear that he does not intend to leave too many of his own fingerprints on the team.
When Stokes first captained England in 2020, deputising for father-to-be Joe Root, the latter left a message in the captain’s blazer reading “do it your own way”.
But Pope is happy to stick to the ‘Bazball’ blueprint and does not have to look far for inspiration, Stokes having opted to stick with the side in a backroom role for the duration of the three-match series.
“It’s a great opportunity for me, one of the greatest honours in English cricket. But I think it’s still Stokesy’s team,” he said after overseeing nets at Emirates Old Trafford.
“That’s probably the difference, I’ve had no message in my locker but I’m sat next to him in the changing room!
“It’s going to be great to have him around. If I want to lean on him, I can lean on him and I think he’s going to let me do my own thing for the course of this Test series as well.
“I’ve picked his brains a little bit on that moving forward. It’s a lot of the same messages but from a different voice and in my own way.
“He’s obviously going to be watching, chatting, so I can have those conversations in the intervals if I think anything needs to change and we can bounce a few ideas off each other.
“We’ve got some great coaches and obviously he’s just another brain in the changing room.”
England’s last visit to Manchester ended in frustration, with a dominant showing against Australia concluding as a rain-ruined draw that ended their hopes of winning the Ashes.
More unsettled weather is forecast in the coming days, meaning Pope may have to get creative to force a result if time is lost.
“I’ve not looked too closely at the weather; if it rains, it rains,” he said.
“I think naturally, with the way the guys play, we do look to move the game forward. If we play well and play some of our best cricket, the game will move forward quicker than it can do at times.
“If it suddenly rains on day three then that’s something that we might discuss then but for now the focus is just to go out and whether it takes us five days or however long, just go and win the game.”
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