Ben Stokes has come out in support of the under-fire England stand-in captain Ollie Pope, who has faced criticism for his meagre batting returns against Sri Lanka.
Pope, filling in for the injured Ben Stokes as England’s Test captain, led them to a series win against Sri Lanka, with a match still to be played. Despite his side’s dominant performance, the middle-order batter’s form left a lot to be desired.
In four innings in the series so far, Pope has returned three single-digit scores – 6,6,1 – with a best of a 38-ball 17. Twice, he was outsmarted by tactical masterstrokes from Sri Lanka.
Pope has faced backlash for his lean patch, with former England captain Michael Vaughan one of his most vocal critics.
'There's always going to be someone in the firing line'
However, Stokes, who has been with the England medical team during the series, defended his underfire deputy, claiming that criticism is part and parcel of being an English cricketer.
"Unfortunately, it's just English culture towards sport," Stokes told ESPNcricinfo in London ."There's always got to be someone in the firing line and obviously, when you're captain you are more exposed to that.
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"He's won two games out of two in charge. At the end of the day, I think that's the thing that he's concentrated on the most. He obviously wants to be scoring runs and leading from the front. He's openly admitted that. People are very quick to jump on anything, to someone who's in the firing line and obviously Pope coming in and being captain whilst I'm injured, you can say he's the easy target there."
Stokes: Pope has tactically done really well
Stokes said Pope's assessment is harsh and reminded everyone about his consistent performances during the West Indies Tests earlier.
"But I think he's done fantastically well in leading the team. He's done it his own way, which is something I encouraged him to do, to keep driving the team forward in the way that I've been trying to do, but make sure that you put your own personal touches to it," Stokes added.
"I think he's tactically he's done very well. Let's not forget before that first Test against Sri Lanka, he'd come off the back of fifty, fifty and a hundred (57, 121 and 51 in consecutive innings against West Indies). And then he doesn't have one good game and everyone's saying he is out of form. It's like 'short memories people, come on!'"
England enter the final Test at the Oval with an unassailable 2-0 lead, looking to clean sweep the series. They also had a 3-0 win over West Indies earlier this summer.
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