'It's still Stokesy's team' - Ollie Pope opens up on leading England in Ben Stokes' absence

Ollie Pope is set to become the 82nd captain of England's Test cricket team as they prepare to face Sri Lanka in a three-match series starting from August 21. The 26-year-old will step into the role as a stand-in captain, filling the shoes of Ben Stokes, who is ruled out due to a hamstring injury. 

Pope’s captaincy experience is relatively limited, with only one first-class match and eight T20 Blast matches under his belt. He was appointed as England's vice-captain llast summer. 

Stokes, though unable to play was part of the team’s preparations, attended the training session and had a chat with the team ahead of the game. Pope expressed his appreciation for Stokes' involvement, noting that while he will lead the team, he will still rely on Stokes for guidance.

"It's still Stokesy's team. Everyone's pretty clear how they want to go about this week, and this series in general. I think having Stokesy in the changing room is great. 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 know how well he's managed our bowlers especially, and I've picked his brains a little bit on that," he said at the pre-match press conference.

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I'm still at No. 3 when it comes to batting: Ollie Pope

As he steps into this role, Pope is mindful of balancing his responsibilities as both a captain and a batter. He has been in a brilliant touch as he scored a century and a half-century against West Indies recently. However, Pope is aware of the challenge of compartmentalizing his batting and captaincy duties. 

"Hopefully, it's almost a positive on my batting. I've still put in the hard work in the nets with the bat like I do for Test cricket. I'm still at No. 3 when it comes to batting and my job for the team is still to go out and score big runs... when I had a bit of a stint in the T20 for Surrey, the first thing I reminded myself was, when it's batting time, it's batting time," he added.

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Pope is also looking to tap into the experience of other senior players who he describes as having a great cricket brain. The collective experience within the team will be crucial as England aims for a series sweep against a Sri Lankan side that recently defeated India in an ODI series.

"Then, the rest of the time, you can be the captain and think a little bit more about the team. I've got some great guys to lean upon on the pitch as well Brooky [Harry Brook] being vice-captain, he's got a great cricket brain, and guys like Rooty [Joe Root] out there on the pitch too. There's plenty of experience to bounce off a few ideas," he concluded.