Firstly, congratulations to Ollie Pope on a fantastic century in the third test, GP Thorpe will be looking down and raising a glass of red to you!
In the space of two tests certain parts of the cricket press and media created a campaign against Ollie Pope that verges on abuse. The apparent glee some take from the perceived failure of our exceptional young cricketers (others sports guilty too) is absurd.
Lets start with the facts, Pope’s runs have been important. Even before this current century, he was doing just fine, better than fine against the West Indies.
The whole case against Ollie Pope was built on the first two tests against Sri Lanka, coincidentally the first two times he has captained his national test team and both occasions they won the match.
Judgements on Pope ‘the captain’ seem both unnecessary and a cheap shot, he is not England’s Test captain. He is the vice-captain to Ben Stokes who in turn has lead England in a style that very few, if any, would be able to replicate or improve upon.
Pope is standing in for his injured captain on a temporary basis, therefore, is it even in his remit to do anything other than look after it for his skipper? He is acting as a care taker and learning on the job. Lets not be so keen to fund fault.
Pope is not a good starter in tests, this could also be said of past players Ricky Ponting and KP who both had a habit of making you pay once in. On top of this, it is Pope’s first time dealing with the media duties, toss etc. etc. that a captain must fulfil.
I wonder how many test captains scored a test century within their first 5 innings as captain?
Final thoughts on this, standing in as a captain is not easy. Off the top of my head, Alec Stewart stood in for Gooch, Butch for Nasser and Stokes for Root (I am sure Strauss/Flintoff/Tres must have done so for Vaughan). None found it easy, and none were guaranteed to be the next captain, my point being that Ollie Pope is doing the job he has been asked to do. Who captains England next is irrelevant at this point in time.
Moving on from Pope the headline of the final test was the selection of Josh Hull, of which plenty has been said and written. I found in interesting that Matty Potts made way, perhaps a sign that he is just not where they want him to be?
They could have taken Atkinson or Woakes out, as both have played all tests. They could have pulled Stone out as he is now playing back to back after three years out, but it was Potts.
Potts pace flickered up to 87mph on occasion and he certainly got better with overs in his legs. He has stamina, seems to avoid injury, is a great athlete in the field and a decent lower order batsman but there is still a question over his wicket taking ability at this level (shades of Craig Overton).
With the hope that Archer, Tongue and Wood will all return, should Hull go well then Potts is slipping down the pecking order.
The sad news of Mark Wood’s injury brings the troubles of fast bowlers back into the spotlight. Central contracts did wonders for the longevity of Anderson and Broad, but neither were out and out fast bowlers. We have a long history of not being able to keep the 90mph guys on the field.
Darren Gough, Dean Headley, Alex Tudor, Simon Jones, Chris Tremlett, Steve Finn, Mark Wood, Jofra Archer, Saqib Mahmood, Ollie Stone, Josh Tongue … I am sure I have missed a few, but none have played as many test as you’d have liked them to.
I like the policy of picking some players before they get into bad habits on the county circuit. One area of focus now must be how to keep those prize assets on the field for as long as possible, something Australia have managed with Cummins, Starc and Hazelwood over the last 5/6 years.
Wood, Atkinson, Archer, Tongue, Stone, Hull have potential to do damage anywhere in the world alongside Bashir.
Final thought, Bashir looks a far better bowler when he bowls outside off stump (to the right handers). Hull may help this further when he bowls, but don’t forget that many opposition teams will create rough there. Jeetan Patel and Graeme Swann need to encourage him to bowl that line and attack both edges of the bat – he is a serious bowler when he does!