England stand-in captain Ollie Pope said the team’s cautious but successful run-chase during a five-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the first Test at Old Trafford on Saturday proved they were not a “one-dimensional” team.
Since Brendon McCullum was appointed as England’s red-ball coach in May 2022 they have become known for their aggressive ‘Bazball’ approach.
But after dismissing Sri Lanka for 326 in their second innings, England took nearly 58 overs to reach a target of 205, albeit a slow outfield and some disciplined bowling made boundaries hard to come by.
Even so, it was still notable that star batsman Joe Root’s unbeaten 62 — the keystone of their victorious pursuit — featured just two fours in 128 balls faced.
“I think another day you might see us try and knock that score off in 20 overs fewer but that was the nature of the pitch and a pretty slow outfield as well,” said Pope, who is set to lead England for the whole of this three-match series after regular captain Ben Stokes was ruled out with a torn hamstring.
– ‘Ruthless’ –
“This is not just a one-dimensional team where we want to go out and score quickly,” he added after England’s fourth straight Test win of the season, following their 3-0 rout of the West Indies.
“It’s a team where we want to keep reading situations slightly better and try and be as ruthless as we can. It’s not all about just trying to score as fast as we can, it’s about getting the job done as well.”
Victory with more than a day to spare was a pleasing way for Pope to round off his first match as England captain.
“It was different but I enjoyed it,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed trying to find different ways of taking 20 wickets.”
The one downside for top-order batsman Pope in Manchester was that he was twice out for six, with the 26-year-old Surrey star succumbing to a mis-timed reverse sweep on Saturday.
“I think that’s probably one thing I can take from this Test — making sure I’m captain when I’m in the field but that when it’s batting time, it’s batting time,” he said.
England, ahead of the second Test at Lord’s starting on Thursday, will assess the fitness of fast bowler Mark Wood after the injury-prone Durham express missed the final day’s play at Old Trafford with a thigh problem.
“We’re going to see how he pulls up and go from there,” Pope said. “Nothing is set in stone.”
Sri Lanka collapsed to 6-3 on the opening morning at Old Trafford yet still took the game deep into the fourth day, with Kamindu Mendis’ sparkling 113 on Saturday the highlight.
Blustery conditions, however, made life tough for the tourists, with Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva saying: “Hopefully we will have sun next week and that will be good for us. It was tough here, it was cold and windy. We’re not used to that.
“There are positives here and there. We knew England would come hard against us… Our mistakes were made in the first innings and that cost us the match.”
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