England’s vice-captain in the longest format of the game, Ollie Pope, has expressed his frustrations on not being able to convert a great start in the recent away India series into a huge success at the beginning of the year. He touched on how he missed the chances apart from the opening game in Hyderabad.
Ollie Pope began with a spectacular 196-run knock in the second innings of the first game, where he made a significant contribution in the remarkable 28-run victory for the visitors. But, despite the strong start of the series, they fell regarding their form and went on to lose the series with a 1-4 margin.
He finished the Anthony de Mello Trophy 2023-24 as the seventh-highest run-scorer with 315 runs in ten innings at an average of 31.50 and a strike rate of 65.08, celebrating that marvelous knock of 196 runs, where he showed the right balance between defense and aggression, besides being proactive.
“Right, I am going to have a big series”- Ollie Pope
At the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Ollie Pope’s exciting knock of 196 runs was decorated with 21 boundaries, which came at a strike rate of 70.5, while the next best in the batting scorecard was 47 by opener Ben Duckett, and that shows how important that was from England’s point of view.
He touched on how there was a negative narrative in the team after their trip to India finished, as they already were aware of how hard it would be to be the Rohit Sharma-led side at home.
“We felt like there was quite a negative sort of narrative on the team after India, but we always knew winning out there is the biggest challenge in cricket. When I hit that 196, I was like ‘right, I am going to go and have a big series.” Ollie Pope expressed recently.
He also looked upon the home opener, Yashasvi Jaiswal, who made his debut a few months ago from the series and showed his caliber and class in the five-game, becoming the highest run-getter of the series with 712 runs in nine innings at an average of 89 and a strike rate of nearly 80, celebrating three fifties and a couple of centuries with a best score of unbeaten 214 runs.
The 26-year-old praised the left-handed opener and felt that he failed to adapt his game quickly enough to the conditions that were in front of him after the first game of the series.
“Like Yashasvi Jaiswal had, trying to score as many as possible. But I probably didn’t adapt my game quickly enough to the conditions that were in front of me rather than just the conditions of the first Test.” Ollie Pope remarked.
He shared his frustration on how he failed to convert his starts into big scores for most of the series. There were a few times when he felt good in the middle and looked to kick in but wasn’t able to do so.
“That was a frustration because when you go into a five-match series, you’ve got a chance to play yourself into form but you can play yourself out of form too, and in 10 innings in India that’s exactly what happened.” The Chelsea-born Surrey batter shared.
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“I felt good a couple of times, got myself in, and if I’d kicked on and made one of those innings an 80 and a couple of them 50, it’s completely different. That’s the frustrating thing for me – I’m not so annoyed with the low scores, it’s more when I get myself in and don’t kick on.” Ollie Pope concluded.
His next mission will be the upcoming three-match series at home against Sri Lanka, starting at Old Trafford, Manchester.