Ollie Pope takes inspiration from Virat Kohli’s Trent Bridge innings to get his place back in England team

21-year-old Ollie Pope had made his Test debut at the home of cricket at the Lord’s Cricket Ground against India in the second of the five-match series which saw England beat the visitors 4-1. The mentioned Lord’s Test saw England crushing the Indian team by an innings and 159 runs, as the visitors couldn’t withstand the swing and seam of James Anderson, who picked nine wickets.

Pope managed to play two Tests in the series, another one at Trent Bridge, where Indian team made a roaring comeback on the back of Virat Kohli’s 97 and 103, coupled with Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah’s five-wicket hauls, and won the match by 203 runs.

Pope has termed watching Kohli bat in Trent Bridge as surreal and is impressed enough to take inspiration from Kohli to try and make a comeback into the England team. Pope was a part of England team which triumphed in Sri Lanka, and was also given a chance in the squad for the West Indies tour, but is yet to play a match, thanks to a very good debut by Ben Foakes.

He was who I enjoyed watching

Talking about Kohli’s innings, he was quoted by ESPNcricinfo.com: “I think the way he played there [in Nottingham], it was awesome to play against him and see him first-hand. The way he stood outside his crease when he batted and tried to negotiate the swing. He was who I enjoyed watching, and I learnt a lot from him.”

With England losing both the Tests in the Caribbean, Pope said that watching such cricket has gotten him ready for the future, as the ups and downs of these two weeks have given him a lot of confidence. Pope had an outside chance of making it into the playing XI for the St. Lucia Test since Ben Foakes had been ruled out of the third Test. But Joe Root’s 12-man squad didn’t feature Pope, as Keaton Jennings made a comeback as an opener in the team.

Pope had made his debut for England as a 20-year-old after a brilliant FC season with Surrey in just 15 matches. Talking about his batting positions and stroke selection, Pope said that he had batted for Surrey at no.6 when Surrey was around 60/4 and managed to dig his team out of trouble. He said, “The only thing I’m focused on is that I try not to play too many shots early on and sort of try and play just technically correct innings. So, I don’t let the position I play affect my game.”

He said that he has learned to curb his attacking shots at the beginning of the innings and is happy playing 30 balls for his five runs and play as per the demands of the game, the quality of opposition and the requirement of the situation.

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