Captain Ollie Pope has denied England’s eight-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka in the third and final Test was due to complacency.
Sri Lanka completed their first Test victory on English soil in over a decade after the hosts suffered a second-innings collapse on day three which opened the door to their opponents.
There were a number of questionable decisions made by Pope throughout the series including his 10 failed DRS reviews. More notably, though, on day two when bad light forced England’s spinners on, they struggled on a pitch that offered little movement and Pope decided to keep the team on with the tourists managing to recover from 93-5 to 211-5.
In true Bazball fashion, England would have wanted to carry on with the game to entertain the fans and continue their attack but after their loss, questions were raised about whether that was a turning point in the match.
Wednesday 11th September 6:00pm
“I don’t think it was complacency at all. It’s been a long summer, but that’s nothing to do with the fact we lost this game,” Pope said.
“We still came to play with the same intentions, but this game, for some reason, it didn’t quite come off.
“We didn’t get enough runs after having a first-innings lead and I’d probably put it down to that.
“It was just one of those days where it didn’t come off. We played some really good cricket throughout the series and then in a couple of weeks’ time we’ll be able to look back on that day three, reflect on it and make a decision then.”
England jeopardised their clean sweep chances on day three during their second innings when they collapsed to 82-7 with Ben Duckett and Pope out for seven, Chris Woakes dismissed for a duck, Harry Brook (3) and Gus Atkinson (1) trapped lbw and Shoaib Bashir removed for four.
This handed Sri Lanka a golden opportunity to get back into the Test match and they accepted it with open arms.
In doing so, the hosts floundered their chance of earning their first clean-sweep summer in 20 years after beating the West Indies 3-0 in the series preceding this.
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England captain Ollie Pope shares his thoughts following England’s third Test defeat by Sri Lanka
“It’s disappointing not to be on the right side of the result. Day three, we probably shot ourselves in the foot a little bit,” Pope added.
“We weren’t at our best and credit to Sri Lanka. The way [Pathum] Nissanka played was high-class and they deserved to win this Test.
“But we weren’t at our best as well.”
The manner of the defeat was reminiscent of a pre-Bazball era – slow, inevitable and uninspiring – and also took away from the fact that England won the series 2-1.
And while there have been promising moments throughout the Test summer with wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith and pace bowler Atkinson starring, defeat in the final match will be disappointing for this ultra-positive England side.
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Pathum Nissanka brings up his century as Sri Lanka edge closer to a comprehensive win against England in the third Test
“They will be frustrated to have lost here. It is generally a ground they play well at,” said former England fast bowler Stuart Broad.
“I think I said at the start of the summer, their target will have been to win the six Test matches while also getting some new players into Test match cricket and see how they settle.
“I think that has certainly been achieved. There has been some brilliant performances from players that have come into Test match cricket and settled really nicely.
“But this performance will frustrate them slightly, especially now there is a bit of a break before they play another Test match.
“Almost when you play like this and don’t get it quite right, you want to play the following week and stamp some of those habits out.
“England probably didn’t care for their wickets enough or to get a big enough lead.”
Root: We keep finding new ways to look at Test cricket
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Joe Root reacts to England’s third Test defeat by Sri Lanka and being named England’s Test player of the summer
Joe Root, the player of the series, said the defeat will give England another chance to build as they find new ways to approach Test cricket.
“It is great to see this team keep finding new ways to look at the game, keep evolving, keep getting better, and some new faces come in and put their best foot forward and show the depth we have got,” Root said.
“I feel good. You know how fickle this game is, you have got to keep working hard, you know how quickly things can change.
“I think we came up against different conditions in this game and we are always trying to look for ways to put pressure on the opposition.
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Sky Sports’ Mark Butcher and Kumar Sangakkara taker a closer look at the performances of both Sri Lanka and England after the conclusion of day three of the third Test at the Oval
“Unfortunately in this game, it didn’t work in the way we wanted it to but we still stuck to the way we want to play our cricket.
“There will be times where we are challenged and have to find our way back into the game, but I think what brings our best performances is being a team that stands out from others.
“It is an opportunity for us to learn from it and evolve and get better like we want to.”
England’s next Test series comes in October when they travel to Pakistan and will be hopeful that injured duo Zak Crawley and Ben Stokes will be fit to play as Pope hands back the reins.
They previously completed a 3-0 whitewash on their last tour to the country in 2022 and after Pakistan’s recent first ever Test series defeat to Bangladesh, complacency will certainly come back into question.
What’s next?
England’s multi-format white-ball series against Australia starts on Wednesday September 11, live on Sky Sports Cricket from 6pm ahead of the first ball at 6.30pm.
Sky Sports+ has officially launched and will be integrated into Sky TV, streaming service NOW and the Sky Sports app, giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. Find out more here.