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Former England captain Nasser Hussain reckons that Ollie Pope has an issue with starting an innings off on the right note. The stand-in skipper's lean patch continued as he was dismissed for just one run in the first innings of the second Test against Sri Lanka at Lord's on Thursday, August 29.
Pope had come to the crease following the dismissal of makeshift opener Dan Lawrence in the seventh over. The No.3 batter endured a lot of close shaves after being chopped in half by a Lahiru Kumara delivery that came back in, and narrowly avoided an outside edge while attempting a lavish drive.
His time at the crease came to an end after he attempted to pull Asitha Fernando to the leg-side. However, his stroke only caught the top edge, and he was caught by opposition skipper Dhananjaya de Silva.
Pope's 10-ball stay at the crease was hardly promising, and it has concerned Nasser Hussain to an extent as well. The former skipper described Pope as a 'nervy, fidgety figure' at the crease.
"At the moment, there’s still a bit of bluff from Pope when it comes to batting, and I don't mean that in a negative way. Someone like Kevin Pietersen had natural strut and swagger, and wanted to put bowlers under pressure, but Pope is not really like that," Nasser Hussain wrote in his colum for the Daily Mail.
"He’s more like the emerging Ian Bell before he and Pietersen formed that middle-order bond - a nervy, fidgety figure at the crease. Someone lacking the belief someone with his ability should possess. Pope is still in that stage of trying to convince everyone with the projection of his personality. Look at his first class record, it's utterly brilliant, but his fidgety starts are an issue," Hussain added.
Pope started the England home season on a bright note, scoring a fifty and a hundred in the first two matches against the West Indies. However, since then he has recorded only 23 runs in the last five innings, and has not reached double digits in three successive innings.
"Pope’s issue is that he is a poor starter" - Nasser Hussain
Ollie Pope admitted that he has had issues separating the facets of captaincy and batting in his game, and the burden of leadership has seeped into his recent performances. Barring the tons against India and the West Indies, Pope has had a lean year for England.
After an imperious match-winning 196 against India in the series opener in Hyderabad, Pope fizzled away in the remainder of the five-match series.
"Pope’s issue is that he is a poor starter. I don't recall Joe Root looking frenetic at the beginning of an innings, even when he was captain, and he was often coming in at 20 for two. The most important thing, he told me, was getting runs, because everything flows from that. Every decision you make seems easier when you’re contributing with the bat. Remember, that is his number one job. It's why he’s in the side and No. 3 is a pivotal position," Hussain added in his column.
England finished the first day on a commanding 358-7, on the back of Joe Root's ton and Gus Atkinson's fifty down the order.
