Ollie Pope, the most exciting young strokemaker in England, sat down with Jo Harman to talk about the “massive learning curve” of Test cricket, his record-breaking first-class stats and how he became a better batsman without picking up a bat.
Jo Harman is magazine editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly. Subscribe to the magazine here.
“I knew as soon as I did it,” says Ollie Pope, recalling the agony of dislocating his left shoulder while fielding for Surrey in April. “As I was walking off I had all these emotions in my head and everything was running at 100 miles an hour. ‘I won’t be able to do this, I won’t be able to do that’.”
A couple of days later Pope sat down with Alec Stewart, Surrey’s director of cricket, to talk through his options. He could either have an operation and be sidelined for three to four months, effectively ending his hopes of playing in the Ashes, or let the ligaments and tendons repair themselves and potentially be back on the field in six weeks, with the caveat that his shoulder could pop out again and take him back to square one.
“It was very tempting [to take the second option],” says Pope, speaking to wisden.com at The Oval a few days before flying out for England’s Test series in New Zealand. “But I had the operation and it was definitely the right decision.”
It was a cruel blow for the 21-year-old, who was primed for Ashes selection after scoring a career-best 251 in the season curtain-raiser against a strong MCC side in Dubai, and he admits he struggled at times during his recovery. “You miss that feeling that you’ve achieved something in the day,” he says.
Townsend says he has seen his former pupil kick on again since his short stint in England’s Test team in 2018, an experience Pope describes as “a massive learning curve”.
Pope’s Test debut at Lord’s against India – slotting in at No.4, a position he’d never batted before in senior cricket – was just his 16th first-class appearance and he made a sprightly 28 before being stood down after scores of 10 and 16 at Trent Bridge. To say he was dropped would be too simplistic – an injury to Ben Stokes meant England needed to reinforce their bowling options, with Pope making way for Moeen Ali at the Ageas Bowl – but nonetheless it was the kind of experience that could easily dent a young player’s confidence. Instead he rounded off the season with his most expansive century to date, a near run-a-ball 114 against Essex at The Oval.
“You do see players come out of the England side and struggle,” says Pope. “That was my main concern really. There’s no reason for it to happen, so once I got my first score out of the way I was feeling in a really good place again. And I understood that if circumstances were different I might have played the last two Tests [against India].”
Pope agrees with Townsend’s assessment that at times he had a tendency to try and be “too creative, looking to impose himself too quickly”, his second-innings dismissal in the Trent Bridge Test against India, when he flung his hands at a wide delivery from Mohammed Shami and was caught at third slip, being an obvious example.
“I used to hate being on 5 or 10 because I wanted to be on 20 or 30. I wanted to be in and to be able to bat freely. At Trent Bridge I was on 16 and thinking, ‘If I get a boundary here I’ll be on 20 and off and running’, and I played a big drive and got out. That’s probably the main change in my game since. I’m more patient and happy to lower the risk, probably because I’m more comfortable in my defence and I back my ability to bat for long periods of time even more now.”
He cites Surrey’s final game of the 2019 Championship season, when Notts’ seamers hung the ball out wide to him and he was happy to leave it “for probably six or seven overs”. Pope spent more than four hours at the crease and was eventually dismissed for 106.
“I haven’t been told if I’ll definitely be playing or where I’ll bat if I do play, but I feel like whether that be at 3, 4, 5 or 6, I’ve got a solid enough technique and good enough mindset. I’ve now had those experiences of being in in the fifth over of a first-class game a few times [in his now-regular No.4 position for Surrey] and it’s definitely something that I can deal with. I feel like I’m good enough in defence and I can punish the bad balls, so wherever they tell me to bat, I feel like my game’s pretty suited to it.”
Pope is excited by the challenge of facing an impressive Kiwi pace attack which bundled England out for 58 on their last visit, eager to pit his wits against the skills of Boult, Southee and Wagner on their home turf.
“You’ve got to be the best to beat the best,” he says. The question now is just how good Ollie Pope can become.
