England announced their starting XI for the first Test against India in the five-match series, which begins on Friday, June 20 at Headingley in Leeds. One of the more interesting decisions made by England’s management was to leave out Jacob Bethell and instead select Ollie Pope to bat at No. 3.
Pope had been England’s number three batter in Tests for a long period. However, due to a run of poor form, he was demoted to the lower ranks of the order on the New Zealand tour in late 2018. Bethell batted at number three in the series and achieved three fifties in as many Tests. The southpaw competed with Pope for the No. 3 spot against India. However, the right-handed batter will have the opportunity to face the music.
During the pre-match press conference, England captain Ben Stokes revealed that Pope’s century in the four-day Test against Zimbabwe in Nottingham last month helped him win the match. The 27-year-old hammered 171 off 166 balls on a fast track.
“Well, the majority of the selection came from people other than us. It will be astonishing to choose someone else if their most recent knock was 170.
That’s pretty much all I have to say about it,” remarked Ben Stokes.
The great all-rounder stated that Pope’s exciting century shown that he is unaffected by outside noise and can deal with pressure. Stokes, on the other hand, acknowledged that it is difficult for players today to escape receiving criticism.
“I believe in this day and age, it’s extremely difficult not to notice all of the speculation and stuff surrounding it because of how quickly available things are. You don’t even have to look for it these days, I believe, with his latest Test match score of 170 demonstrating how well he’s handled the added scrutiny, which comes with the territory. “It comes with being an international player,” Stokes explained.
“It’s one of those things where when as a kid you dream about playing for England and it’s an unbelievable thing, then the other side of it is that you can come under the pump a little bit and that’s part of the territory and part of handling it is also being able to handle the scrutiny that, no doubt, is always gonna come someone’s way at some point,” he added.
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