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Ollie Pope believes the pressure of defending his spot in the England team amid constant speculation about his future and the rising challenge presented by Jacob Bethell has given him greater clarity and quality, leaving him well placed to improve a poor record against Australia when the Ashes start on Friday.
In 10 Test innings against the Australians Pope has never scored more than 42, averaging 11.16 in the three games he played last time England toured here in 2021-22, and 22.50 in two matches when the Ashes were last contested in 2023. The 27-year-old looked in fine form when scoring 100 and 90 in the warmup fixture against the Lions at Lilac Hill and will head to the Optus Stadium for the first Test with confidence high.
“I’m someone who likes time in the middle just to get myself ready for a series. I found it really beneficial,” Pope said. “Everyone is pretty aware conditions were very different [to the Optus Stadium, venue for the first Test] but it’s a month and a half since my last game so it’s just nice to have some time in the middle.”
Having spent a fair amount of his England career fielding questions about whether it is about to end, Pope answered the latest query with a grin. “I’ve got so used to those conversations being had, and seeing them,” he said. “I don’t go looking for them but it’s pretty hard to avoid sometimes. I’m so used to seeing it I’ve just learned to focus on my game. I’m just trying to become a better player each time I step out, and that’s all I can do.
“It’s been good for me that I’ve learnt that under the most pressure I’ve been able to deliver. I know that I can learn how to deal with that and get the best out of myself. Everyone wants to be the first name on the team sheet, that’s pretty clear, but at the same time we’re playing international sport and I’ve got to remind myself of that at times. There’s always going to be someone on your heel if you haven’t quite scored the volume of runs that you would have liked. I’m learning to live with it and put my best foot forward.”
Watching Pope preparing in the nets over the last week it has been clear that he is doing additional, focused work, returning for extra sessions and constantly discussing his technique with staff, particularly the assistant coach Jeetan Patel. “I’ve done a bit of work on my game, tidied up some areas,” he said. “Just a couple of little technical bits. I’m not going to go into it too much before the series. Just smoothing out a few areas.”
As a result he goes into the Ashes confident that he will improve on the performances that got him dropped two games into England’s last tilt at the urn in Australia, having scored 34, four, five and four in his first four innings of the series.
“I think I’m a far better player than I was the last time I came out to Australia,” he said. “I’ve got those experiences behind me and I know how I want to go about it so fingers crossed I can deliver with a lot of runs. I got dropped pretty quickly in the last series and rightly so at the time. I just wasn’t as clear how I wanted to play. I didn’t know my game well enough and I didn’t know the conditions like I might have known them, so they’re things I’ve banked. Growing up a little bit and getting used to playing these big series and games helps. For me, I’ve got complete clarity in how I want to go about batting on each of these pitches.”
