Ollie Pope will be the 82nd player to captain England in a men's Test match when he takes the reigns against Sri Lanka next week.
With Ben Stokes ruled out of the series after tearing his hamstring during a Hundred clash against Manchester Originals, Pope - who was officially named as England's vice-captain in the format last year - will take charge for the entire three-match series. The opening match at Old Trafford will be Pope's 47th Test match since he made his debut against India in 2018.
Zak Crawley has also been ruled-out of the series after fracturing a finger during England's final Test against the West Indies last month. Crawley was named captain of England's ODI squad for their series against Ireland last year in Jos Buttler's absence.
While Pope has neither international or first-class experience of leading a side over the course of a series or season, he does have one event to draw experience from.
In 2021, when Rory Burns was still opening the batting for England, Pope was called upon to captain Surrey in a fixture against Glamorgan when Burns was made unavailable for the fixture by England. While the match was a run-fest which ended in a draw, it does mean that Pope goes into his first match as England skipper with a batting average as captain of 274. It also means he has experience of captaining not only England white and red ball stars Ben Foakes, Will Jacks, Jamie Smith, but also Hashim Amla, who was Surrey's overseas player at the time.
After losing his first coin toss and having to field first while Glamorgan made hay on a flat Oval pitch, Pope had to spend the first two sessions of his captaincy experience toiling in the September sun while opener David Lloyd made a century. The opening partnership reached the 50-run mark in the tenth over, reportedly drawing a shout of 'rubbish' from one disgruntled Surrey fan in the stand. Despite having Reece Topley and Jordan Clark making up an impressive bowling attack, Glamorgan reached 211-1 just before Tea, and by the end of the day they were 374-4.
Matters didn't improve for Pope the following day, when Chris Cooke converted his not out overnight score into a double-century. His 201 took Glamorgan to what was at the time their third-highest first-class score, as they declared on 672-6. They left Surrey with an uncomfortable period to bat in the evening session, but it was seen off without loss by Jamie Smith and Ryan Patel.
Pope would've been thankful to get off the field after nearly two days in the sun and very little to show, and, the following day, he had a period of relaxation, watching Smith score his at the time career-best and third century of the 2021 season, before Amla came in at three and also piled on a century.
Pope came in at 247-2 when Smith was dismissed, and set about making his own mark in classic Ollie Pope-Oval style. He reached 95 by the close of play, having faced 135 balls, 12 of which he hit for four. Coming back for the final day of the game, Pope mad hay. With no prospect of a result, Pope passed his century-mark early on and went on briskly to a double. Taking advantage of the part-time spin on offer, he was closing in on a triple by the end of the afternoon session, before he was abruptly bowled by Hamish Rutherford.
The innings is still the highest score of Pope's first-class career, and at the time put his average in the format at The Oval to 99.94, matching Don Bradman's Test average. Given that this is the only professional match of Pope's career in which he's captained, that also means that Pope's batting average as captain stands at exactly 274. England would be more than happy if he matched that average against Sri Lanka.
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