Ollie Pope: England’s stand-in captain finds the balance on day one against Sri Lanka in Ben Stokes’ absence

In a bygone era, it might have seemed that, with three initials and a public-school education, Oliver John Douglas Pope would have been destined to captain the England Test team at some point.

A sign of the times, though, is how the approach taken with the Surrey batter has been to nurture the skills spotted in him by Ben Stokes with his appointment as vice-captain, first on an unofficial basis and then officially since May last year.

Pope may not have expected to be taking the reins as soon as this summer’s three-Test series against Sri Lanka, which began in Manchester on Wednesday, but Stokes has long sensed the 26-year-old is a perfect choice to continue championing his philosophy of attacking cricket.

“There is a reason why I appointed him as vice-captain,” Stokes, out for the rest of the summer with a hamstring injury, told Sky Sports. “I think he has a great sense of the game, and we are very like-minded in terms of plans.

“I always found that when he was coming to me, it was something I already had in the back of my mind.

“He was the obvious choice as captain, and I think he has grown into his role as No 3 then giving him the vice-captaincy has taken him to another level as a leader.”

The stand-in captain’s lot is not always a happy one – just ask Chris Cowdrey or Mark Butcher about their experiences in the job – yet Pope could hardly have imagined day one at Emirates Old Trafford would go as well as it did, particularly after he lost the toss.

He was quite happy with opposite number Dhananjaya de Silva’s decision to bat first, despite the bright sunlight, and even more so when Sri Lanka were reduced to 6-3 in the seventh over and then 92-6 shortly after lunch.

The batting of Sri Lanka’s captain, who top-scored on 74, and debutant Milan Rathnayake, making 72 batting at No 9 on his Test debut, posed the biggest challenge for Pope though as the pair dug in and made England toil in the field during the latter part of the afternoon session.

Having to bowl spin from both ends due to bad light, bringing Joe Root into the attack alongside Shoaib Bashir, gave the new skipper something else to consider as well. Yet he managed to juggle all of those issues to help ensure Sri Lanka were eventually bowled out for 236 late in the day, with England reaching 22 without loss at the close.

Pope had previously spoken of his intention to keep doing things in the same manner which has worked for Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum over the past two years, although Mel Jones expected there would still be times when he would have to lean on his own experience too.

“He’s mentioned a couple of times how it’s going to be the same message, just told differently,” Jones told Sky Sports.

“There would have been moments for Ollie Pope where he might have thought ‘I might try this’ but then thought ‘No, that’s probably not the way we want to go about this’.

“That’s going to be the biggest challenge, to go with the gut feel from his experience of the game and what the experiences with the England team are.

“That will be the conversation piece with Ben and Baz [McCullum] when he comes off, about how he’s managed all of that.”

As any good captain knows though, it is not just about yourself, but also about how you work with the other senior members of the team to ensure a consistency in messaging in both the dressing room and the field.

Nasser Hussain had several of those who he played with for England both before and during the 45 Tests he skippered the national team for, and he was in little doubt Pope had settled well into the role he has been developed for.

Not only that, but he believes the experience serves as crucial for both Pope and the long-term development of the team he may well one day succeed Stokes at the helm of on a permanent basis.

“You should have leaders in that dressing room that aren’t captains,” Hussain told Sky Sports. “We are dedicating today to Graham Thorpe – he was a leader without putting that armband on. Chris Woakes is like that and a leader as well.

“Your first job is to win the game in front of you, but this summer is all about win your six Test matches and look to the future.

“You have to see does it sit comfortably on Ollie Pope.”

Although still around the camp in his absence, Stokes has been determined to empower Pope to go and do the job his way rather than be worried about trying to second-guess himself with the captain looking over his shoulder.

Woakes, who finished as the pick of England’s bowlers in Sri Lanka’s first innings with 3-32, was impressed with how at ease he was with stepping up to the top job after earning the respect of his team-mates in his role as vice-captain.

“He’s been good,” Woakes said. “He doesn’t want to be Ben; he wants to do it his own way which is great.

“He does a really good role as vice-captain while him and Ben are out there, and they’re constantly talking.

“He’ll probably naturally pick up on what Ben does, but I wouldn’t say he was any different. He was just himself.

“He was certainly on it, trying to communicate with his bowlers, talk about fields, but also pretty chilled which was great.”

Watch England’s first Test against Sri Lanka, from Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester, live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event from 10.15am on Thursday 11am first ball)

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