A strange thing happened in Multan, and I’m not talking about the deployment of giant fans to dry out an already used pitch. No, instead Ollie Pope scored 29 and 22, as if laughing in the face of those who pigeon-hole him as an all-or-nothing kind of guy.
And yet those scores, while closer to nothing than to all, almost felt more of a concern than a pair of outright failures: 29 and 22 are not, we had been assured, Pope territory. Once he’s through those early moments – as jumpy and twitchy as a new-born lamb, the bowlers on red alert – that’s when he makes opponents pay.
England, it should be said from the outset, are not about to drop Pope. He has averaged 42 from No 3 in the Bazball era, and always seems able to wave evidence of a big innings from the not-too-distant past in the face of his detractors.
When he struggled during the last three Tests in India earlier this year, he could point to his 196 at Hyderabad. When he began the Sri Lanka series with scores 6, 6, 1 and 17, he could refer back to his 121 against West Indies at Trent Bridge. And now that the first two games in Pakistan have produced 51 runs in three innings, he can hold up his 154 against the Sri Lankans at The Oval.
And that’s the thing about Pope: helped by the amount of Test cricket England play, he rarely goes for long without going big. The problem, if we’re being picky, is the stuff in between.
Ollie Pope scored 29 and 22 in Multan in a somewhat surprising turn of events in Pakistan
The 26-year-old served as captain in injured Ben Stokes’ absence in the first Test in Multan
Pope has made the second-most appearances (28) under Brendon McCullum (centre) – behind only Joe Root’s 31
In Rawalpindi on Thursday, Pope – still only 26 – will win his 52nd Test cap, of which 28 have come under Brendon McCullum (only Joe Root, with 31, has played more Bazball Tests). England have even entrusted him with the leadership, and victory in the first of the Multan games was, for sure, a feather in his cap. He may yet finish his career with a winning percentage as captain of 75.
Yet Pope still has the bearing of a newcomer, still seems unable to graduate to the ranks of fully fledged grown-up. However many times Nasser Hussain or Geoffrey Boycott point out that he jabs at the ball, it makes little difference. A novice might be easily forgiven this blind spot. But England’s experienced No 3?
Pope’s first-Test duck in a total of 823 for seven was partly down to bad luck: obliged to open after Ben Duckett dislocated a thumb, he fell victim to Aamer Jamal’s blinding catch at midwicket. It was cruel – and a little misleading.
But the two shots he played during the second Test, both off Sajid Khan, were hard to credit. On each occasion playing against the turn, he was bowled in the first innings, then caught-and-bowled in the second, when England’s only hope was a solid start on the fourth morning. These would not have been percentage strokes on a good pitch, let alone one by now into its seventh and ninth days. Again, it seemed fair to question his judgment.
And that’s a worry. Pope currently has 2,932 Test runs. Of the 218 who have made more, 190 possess a better average than his 34.49. And of the 28 who don’t, only nine are specialist batsmen, including two New Zealanders from the era before they started winning Tests, a Zimbabwean, a Bangladeshi and Graeme Hick.
At a time in his career when he should be moving to the next level, Pope is rubbing statistical shoulders with Test cricket’s long-term nearly-men and not-quites, the players the selectors couldn’t bring themselves to drop.
Pope is close to rubbing shoulders with Test cricket’s nearly-men when he should be taking a step forward
But England’s director of cricket Rob Key (left) was quick to defend his current early-innings jumpiness after the Test summer
England will deny he is in that category, partly because they genuinely believe he isn’t, partly because they have invested so much in his success. Their patience may yet be rewarded.
At the end of the Test summer, England managing director Rob Key defended Pope’s early-innings jumpiness, telling Mail Sport: ‘Batting in the top order is bloody tough. Life’s not as simple as just “calm down”. Since we started, he’s done an excellent job, considering he’s not done it before.
‘There’s plenty of people who are poor starters, but they end up getting in and getting big hundreds, and making it count. Popey’s got two hundreds this summer, and I think he feels he can play a lot better than what he has done. I’m not at all concerned about him.’
Fair enough. England’s backing is characteristic of the new regime. Hick had no such luck during his long, stop-start career. Nor did Mark Ramprakash. How might they have fared with greater selectorial empathy?
And it’s true that Pope’s career is littered with what felt at the time like breakthrough innings: an unbeaten 135 at Port Elizabeth in 2019-20, a superb 145 against New Zealand at Trent Bridge in only his second Test at No 3, the miracle of Hyderabad. Never mind the average: feel the promise.
His role in the miracle of Hyderabad is among a handful of performances laced with promise
Runs this week in Rawalpindi will help, and he may yet flourish in New Zealand before Christmas. But 2025 could be the year that defines Pope: five home Tests against India will be followed by five in Australia. There will be nowhere to hide.
For every England player, these games loom large. For Pope, because of his record against Test cricket’s two best teams, success is non-negotiable. From 25 innings against India, he averages 24; from 10 against Australia, 15. Those 35 innings have produced the hundred at Hyderabad, and one other score above 50. If those numbers don’t pick up next year, England may have their answer about his suitability for the pivotal position at No 3.
In the meantime, they will have to make do with a player who has been dismissed for fewer than 20 in 48 of his 90 innings, and hope he can summon up the spirit of Hyderabad.
Leach has done his homework
It’s hard to think of a more likable international cricketer than Jack Leach, who last week became England’s leading Test wicket-taker in Asia. So it paid to listen when he explained why the county game’s widely derided experiment with the Kookaburra ball – used in four rounds of last summer’s championship – had helped him prepare for Pakistan.
Jack Leach has stressed the helpfulness of working with a Kookaburra in England before the series in Pakistan
‘When we use a Kookaburra on those pitches at Taunton, that was most similar to what I’d experienced in some places in international cricket,’ he said. ‘A Dukes on those spinning wickets is a little bit extreme – it does it quicker. The wickets out here have been very slow, and the Kookaburra ball gets very old, it doesn’t offer as much, and the seam goes. Using it in England was actually quite helpful leading into this series.’
With 14 wickets going into the Rumble in Rawalpindi, more than anyone on either side, he knows what he’s talking about.
Does a Test come down to the toss?
Is home advantage becoming more entrenched? Pakistan have made liberal use of giant fans and heaters in a bid to turn Rawalpindi into a spin-bowling nirvana, while India’s defeat by New Zealand at Bangalore triggered instant chatter about spinning surfaces at Pune and Mumbai.
Ben Stokes, meanwhile, responded to Pakistan’s decision to reuse the pitch in Multan with a shrug of the shoulders, and an admission that he might also have a word with the groundsman if England found themselves 1-0 down at home.
The hosts have been doing their best to ensure the pitch at Rawalpindi is a spinner’s paradise
Never mind the fabled balance between bat and ball: Test matches are in danger of being decided by the toss.
Outspoken Hartley should be applauded
Players-turned-pundits often opt for the easy life. So hats off to Alex Hartley, who accused some of England’s women cricketers – ex-team-mates among them – of not being fit enough. While the world continued to rotate on its axis, Hartley’s stature as a commentator grew.
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