Former England captain Michael Vaughan believes Ollie Pope should bat at No.6 on his Test debut against India at Lord’s.
Surrey wicket-keeper batsman Pope, 20, is averaging 85.50 from 10 innings this season in first-class cricket. He has been brought in as a replacement for Dawid Malan, who was dropped after a series of low scores post-Ashes.
Vaughan also had some technical advice for Jonny Bairstow, who despite having a positive start to the series exposed a potential weakness outside off-stump.
”Jonny has to find his tempo, I think he’s just lost that a little bit in Test match cricket,” Vaughan said. “He’s being a bit too frantic. I’d like to see him go over to off-stump just that little bit more. I saw him at Edgbaston, all three stumps were on offer. You don’t see many high-class players at Test match level that are offering all three stumps.
“Last year against South Africa he was further over to the off-stump. He’s almost batting in a one-day sense. In the white-ball game, he just stays leg-side and smashes it through the off-side – great. But in Test matches, you’ve got to get over a little bit more and cover your off-stump.”
