England captain Ben Stokes revealed the main factor behind their call to give Ollie Pope the nod over Jacob Bethell for the first Test against India at Headingley, starting from June 20. The race between Pope and Bethell captured the headlines going into the match as both men had staked their claim for the spot. Pope has been England’s designated No.3 for a long time, before indifferent form forced him down the order during the New Zealand tour.
This was the time when Bethell impressed everyone as he scored three fifties against the Blackcaps. Rob Key, England’s managing director, weighed in on the debate and said that the call wouldn’t affect the careers of both men. Finally, it was Pope who got the nod over Bethell and Stokes explained the reason behind the call.
Speaking to the reporters, Stokes said that it would be hard to ignore someone like Pope, who scored 171 in his last knock during the one-off Test against Zimbabwe.
“Well, the big selection just came from not us, um. It’s will be remarkable to choose someone else if their last knock was 170. That’s pretty much all I need to say on that,” said Stokes.
How Pope has handled the public scrutiny?
Stokes said that Pope’s knock against Zimbabwe shows that he can handle the pressure by his knock against Zimbabwe. The England captain feels that being an international means that a player is bound to get scrutinised at one point or the other.
“I think in this day and age, it’s very tough not to see all the kinds of speculation and stuff around it just because of how easily accessible things are. You don’t even have to go and hunt for it to see it these days, I think, scoring 170, in his last test matches sort of showing how well he’s handled that extra scrutiny of it, and it comes with the territory, I guess. When you are an international player, it comes with it.”
“It’s one of those things where when as a kid you dream about playing for England and it’s an unbelievable thing, then the other side of it is that you can come under the pump a little bit and that’s part of the territory and part of handling it is also being able to handle the scrutiny that, no doubt, is always gonna come someone’s way at some point,” said Stokes.
In the 28 matches that Pope has played at No.3, he has scored 2024 runs at an average of 43.06. He has hit 7 hundreds during this time, with one of them being the 196 he scored during England’s win over India in Hyderabad last year.
