Joe Root lavished praise on Ollie Pope, labelling his innings a “masterclass” after Day Three of the Test match in Hyderabad, where Pope scored his fifth Test century and finished the day on 148*.
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Pope came in when England lost Zak Crawley in the first ten overs of their innings. Having bowled India out for 436 in the first hour of the day, England slipped to 163-5 when Ben Stokes was bowled by R Ashwin, still needing 28 runs to make India bat again. Pope had already reached his half century at the point Stokes was dismissed. He was joined by Ben Foakes as England’s last recognised batters at the crease.
From there, Pope played an imperious innings, putting on 112-run partnership with Foakes to take England to 275-6. He reached his century off 154 balls, his first in India and third outside of England. Pushing on in an important partnership with Rehan Ahmed towards the end of the day, Pope finished two runs short of 150, with England leading by 126 going into Day Four.
Following the close of play, Root expressed his admiration for Pope’s innings in the press conference. “The way that Pope has played today was honestly an absolute masterclass on how to bat in these conditions as an overseas player,” said Root. “Someone that’s not exposed to these surfaces day in and day out, to come off the back of a serious injury like he had in the summer with that amount of time out of the game, and then put together well, speechless, honestly, it’s just one of the best knocks that I’ve ever seen.
“To manipulate the field as he did against that attack on that surface, to show that power of concentration and determination, and fitness and skills, all combined was was immense.”
Pope had come under fire for his performance in the first innings of the game, where he was dismissed for one off 11 balls and looked scratchy. It was his first Test innings back since he dislocated his shoulder in the Lord’s Ashes Test, subsequently missing the rest of the series and undergoing surgery.
Root said that his innings outdid his efforts in India. The England great averages 47.73 in Asia, with five hundreds, and made a memorable double hundred at the start of England’s last tour of India. But the twin factors of the spinning conditions and the calibre of the bowling attack put Pope’s knock ahead.
“I might have scored a few runs in the subcontinent, but not on a surface like that against an attack like that. Honestly, that was really special today.”
