The 21-year-old English batsman Ollie Pope generally doesn’t try to copy others’ playing style, but he will not mind copying Virat Kohli.
Currently, the young man is busy in Indian tour as he is playing for England Lions against India A. The Indian skipper and the no.1 ranked Test & ODI batsman Virat Kohli has impressed him hugely with the batting skills. Though the young English cricketer simply believes in playing on his own skills, he also claimed that he wouldn’t mind copying Virat Kohli.
According to ESPNcricinfo, the English youngster said, “I usually don’t try and copy other players, but one player I wouldn’t mind is Kohli, to be honest.”
Ollie Pope especially admired on Virat Kohli’s outstanding batting performances during the Nottingham Test last year. It was the only Test that India won in their previous year’s English tour, while the host side England won the five-match Test series by 4-1.
The Nottingham Test was the second Test of Ollie Pope’s career. In that game, Virat Kohli played the match-winning knocks of 97 and 103 runs while India won that game by 203 runs. The English youngster claimed that he enjoyed those innings, and also learnt a lot of things.
He added, “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.”
The Test series was a good way of me understanding what sort of a player I was
Ollie Pope made his international debut in the previous Test of that series at Lord’s while he was just 20-year-old. He has played two Tests till the date and has scored 54 runs with an average of 18.00. However, the young man feels that the Test series helped him hugely to grow up for the bigger stages.
He said, “I sort of experienced the ups and the downs within two weeks of cricket, which has actually put me in good stead for the future. It doesn’t really get bigger than that. The Test series was a good way of me understanding what sort of a player I was. Mentally I felt I coped with all of that pretty well.”
During that big home series, Ollie Pope spoke to the English Test skipper Joe Root. The young man believes that the present best English Test batsman is the best man to teach him.
Ollie Pope said, “I tried to speak to Joe Root as much as I could when I was in the England dressing room. I feel I sort of play fairly similar game to him, especially the shot selections I make. He is the best person for me to learn off in situations. I look to go about things in the same sort of way like him when I’m batting so I try to pick his brains as much as possible.”
Later, the young man also credited Kumar Sangakkara to make his batting more comfortable. In 2017, Kumar Sangakkara and Ollie Pope played together for Surrey.