{"id":189869,"date":"2025-06-16T20:33:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T20:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/189869\/"},"modified":"2025-06-16T20:33:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T20:33:22","slug":"jacob-bethells-a-fantastic-player-but-i-cant-afford-to-look-over-my-shoulder-says-ollie-pope-as-england-no-3-opens-up-on-pressure-form-and-why-he-still-dreams-of-the-captaincy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/189869\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob Bethell’s a fantastic player – but I can’t afford to look over my shoulder, says OLLIE POPE as England No 3 opens up on pressure, form… and why he still dreams of the captaincy"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s tempting to imagine that the height of Ollie Pope\u2019s ambition right now is to retain his Test spot at No 3 \u2013 despite the looming presence of Jacob Bethell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Pope himself has raised the bar as he embarks on the most crucial eight months of his Test career. Not only does he want to emulate the excellence of Joe Root<\/a>, but he insists he would like another crack at leading England.<\/p>\n

Neither scenario is out of the question, though the possibility of the second may be dependent on the success of the first. And while Pope, the vice-captain, is confident he will retain his place for the start of the five-match series against India<\/a> at Headingley on Friday, he knows he needs to improve on a career average of 35 boosted by a double-century against Ireland and last month\u2019s 171 against Zimbabwe. He has no doubt about the role model.<\/p>\n

\u2018I want to be someone who does things like Root, and goes hundred, hundred, hundred,\u2019 he said. \u2018That\u2019s probably the one thing I\u2019ve been missing, really \u2013 scoring back-to-back hundreds, and doing it week in, week out.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s just trying to make sure the mental side of my game is in as good a place as it can be, so I can really cash in. Hopefully this is the perfect time to do it, with a five-match series, when you can get on a good run.\u2019<\/p>\n

Pope\u2019s self-analysis is backed up by the fact that, while his hundred against Zimbabwe was his eighth in Tests, all eight have come against different opponents. In other words, he has never scored more than a single century in any of the 21 series in which he has batted.<\/p>\n

\"Ollie <\/p>\n

Ollie Pope’s place in the batting order has been one of England’s biggest selection headaches<\/p>\n

\"That <\/p>\n

That dilemma has grown only more pressing with the emergence of dynamic Jacob Bethell<\/p>\n

\"Despite <\/p>\n

Despite winning 56 Test caps he hasn’t shaken off the accusation that he is a twitchy starter<\/p>\n

He keeps threatening to shine, only to lose his lustre. And it means his presence in the Test team is debated like no one else\u2019s: even Zak Crawley, continually selected because of the management\u2019s belief in his potential, seems more bulletproof.<\/p>\n

At the age of 27, and with 3,301 runs and 56 Test caps to his name \u2013 four as captain last year while Ben Stokes recovered from a hamstring injury \u2013 Pope ought to be moving into the sweet spot of his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And there has been plenty to enjoy, including an unbeaten 135 against South Africa at Port Elizabeth in 2019-20, an easily forgotten 145 against New Zealand at Trent Bridge to help kickstart the Bazball era in 2022, and a stunning 196 against India at Hyderabad in early 2024, when Indian coach Rahul Dravid salivated over his strokeplay.<\/p>\n

But he has never shaken off the accusation that he is a twitchy starter, nor that he goes missing in the bigger series. Despite the Hyderabad heist, he averages just 24 against India, as well as 15 against Australia. And even those waters are muddied by a pre-Bazball average of 28 and a post-Bazball average of nearly 40 \u2013 perfectly respectable in an era when top orders throughout the world have struggled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So how does he assess his own career ahead of a big summer in which the men, women and mixed disability teams are all taking on India?<\/p>\n

\u2018Very much in two halves,\u2019 he said, looking relaxed in his purple training gear from a room whose panoramic view of London perhaps encouraged a sweeping perspective.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Pre-Stokes and McCullum, when I was batting at five or six, I was trying to find my feet a bit. I know 25 is a lot of Tests to try and find your feet. But I remember getting dropped after the 2021-22 Ashes and thinking: \u201cI hope that\u2019s not it, because I feel like I\u2019ve got a lot more to offer in an England shirt.\u201d I feel like each year I\u2019m gradually becoming a better player.\u2019<\/p>\n

Social-media chatter about Pope\u2019s place has become so loud and regular that he never looks at X, and removes Instagram from his phone before the start of a series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"His <\/p>\n

His career average of 35 is boosted by a massive 171 against Zimbabwe earlier this year<\/p>\n

\"Social-media <\/p>\n

Social-media chatter about his place has become so loud and regular that he never looks at X<\/p>\n

\"Pope <\/p>\n

Pope is also deputy to Ben Stokes on the field, standing in on four occasions as captain<\/p>\n

Nothing good has come of doomscrolling: \u2018I try and live in the four walls, and that\u2019s something I\u2019ve got better at over the last year \u2013 enjoy and trust the people around you. If someone\u2019s saying a bad thing, that\u2019s fine.\u2019<\/p>\n

Pope\u2019s standing within those four walls grew during his four-match stint as stand-in captain, which brought a 2-1 win over Sri Lanka, then an astonishing victory at Multan in October, where England racked up 823 for seven at five and a half an over, and beat Pakistan by an innings.<\/p>\n

In New Zealand two months later, he showed off his versatility, taking the gloves because Jamie Smith was on paternity leave and Jordan Cox picked up a last-minute injury, and scoring crucial runs at No 6 in the wins at Christchurch and Wellington. Stokes has not forgotten Pope\u2019s willingness to put the team\u2019s needs above his desire to nail down the No 3 position.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s not an individual game, though sometimes it\u2019s portrayed as that,\u2019 he said. \u2018It\u2019s about what the team needs first. And if I\u2019m in a position where I can help in different roles, as well as my main role at No 3, that\u2019s something I\u2019m happy to do as well.\u2019<\/p>\n

Above all, though, the experience of the captaincy has given Pope a taste for more. \u2018I really enjoyed it. And it\u2019s 100 per cent something I\u2019d love to do in the future. It was a massive honour. It was about getting that balance right between making sure my game\u2019s in a good place and the team\u2019s in a good place as well. I think I\u2019d be a better captain for it going forward.\u2019<\/p>\n

His life will not be made any easier in the coming weeks by Jasprit Bumrah, the freakishly gifted Indian quick who fought a lone battle during his side\u2019s 3-1 defeat in Australia over the winter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he believes the tourists\u2019 relative inexperience presents England, third in the Test rankings, with an opportunity to widen the gap on opponents who have dropped to fourth after successive series defeats by New Zealand and Australia.<\/p>\n

\u2018Absolutely,\u2019 he said. \u2018Of course, they\u2019re missing Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. But you know what Indian cricket is like, and the depth they\u2019ve got \u2013 an endless amount of brilliant players. But if we play our best stuff, then hopefully we can come out on the right side of the result.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Pope <\/p>\n

Pope accepts that competition for his place from Bethell (pictured) is part of elite cricket<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The only way Pope can really silence the chatter is by going big against India this summer<\/p>\n

\"Brendon <\/p>\n

Brendon McCullum’s England face a massive year with the India series followed by the Ashes<\/p>\n

First, he has to secure his place, and that means confronting the B-word \u2013 Bethell. Pope smiles, as if he knows the question was coming. \u2018If you want to be an elite team, there\u2019s got to be pressure on spots. That\u2019s really important. For me, there\u2019s so much spoken about it, so much said in the media. I know that what works best for me is if I\u2019m just focusing on my stuff.\u2019<\/p>\n

But could he and Bethell play in the same side? Does it have to be an either\/or?<\/p>\n

\u2018Who knows?\u2019 he said. \u2018I don\u2019t really have an answer for that, to be honest. That\u2019s above my pay grade. Look, he\u2019s a fantastic player coming through. But if I spend too much time worrying about that, then that\u2019s me not taking my game forwards.\u2019<\/p>\n

There will be only one way to stop the chatter, and that is to go big against India – and not just once. The challenge will make or break him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s tempting to imagine that the height of Ollie Pope\u2019s ambition right now is to retain his Test…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[43331,748,1406,92,393,7504,4884,43158,93,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-189869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-ben-stokes","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-dailymail","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-england-cricket","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-india-cricket","16":"tag-sport","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114694954129031839","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}