NEW DELHI: The team should strive to have captain Ben Stokes bat at number three in future Test matches instead of Ollie Pope, who he believes lacks composure, according to former England captain Michael Vaughan.
Pope only scored 55 runs in three games at an average of 11 in England’s heartbreaking 1-2 series loss to Pakistan. Beginning on November 27, they will go on a three-match trip of New Zealand as their next Test assignment.
“Pope is a good player, and a great lad who clearly brings a lot to this environment, which places great stock in togetherness and getting on well. Making a big change like this is never easy, and England will not want to. But his returns suggest he does not have the mentality or technique to thrive against the very best bowlers.
“Playing spin at the top level is hard. I’ve said before that I think Pope has a fragile mentality. He’s not alone in that, and that is fine. But when your mentality is fragile, you need your technique to fall back on. It looks after you on your bad days, which there are a lot more of than good ones in Test cricket,” wrote Vaughan in his column for The Telegraph.
Talking about why Stokes, who made 37 runs in four innings in Pakistan, seems to be his choice to bat at number three in Tests, Vaughan said, “This might seem a strange time to suggest that, given he has had another poor tour against spin. But England won’t face as much spin for a while, and Stokes has an outstanding defence against seam, and clearly isn’t going to bowl too much. Stokes is the one player who could soak up pressure.”
With Australia and India scheduled to play England in a five-match Test series next year, Vaughan believes they would love to quickly dismiss a struggling and frenzied Pope with the new ball so they can try to destroy the rest of the batting order.
“If Pope and England are honest with themselves, they have to recognise that even his best innings have lacked control. I enjoy watching him bat when he’s in, because there’s lots of strokes and it’s exciting. But it’s full of risk.
“Next year, England play against India at home and Australia away; that is 10 Tests against the very best bowlers and I think they need to have a real conversation about whether he can succeed.
‘I don’t think he’s been consistently good enough to survive. Unless England think they can change his technique to make it simpler, and allow him to become calmer at the crease, then it is time to change.”
