Nasser Hussain Criticises Captain Ollie Pope: Former England Cricket Team captain Nasser Hussain suggests that current Test captain Ollie Pope should work on his technique with batting coach Marcus Trescothick.
For the ongoing three-match Test series against Sri Lanka, top-order batter Ollie Pope has been named the captain of the Three Lions. The 26-year-old has been a national team regular for a few years in red-ball cricket.
Earlier this year, Pope was one of the very few batters to have had an outstanding performance in the Test series against India, when he scored a fantastic 196 in the third inning of the first Test in Hyderabad, leading the team to their only victory in the series.
But Pope has not had the best start to his captaincy stint. In the ongoing first Test against Sri Lanka, he was bowled by Asitha Fernando for just six runs. And while England has made a decent recovery in the inning, the captain being the only batter to not cross the 10-run mark is not a good sign.
Before the ongoing Test in Manchester’s Old Trafford Stadium, the skipper has an average of 35.39 in 46 Tests and 81 innings, which is a little below average for a regular top-order batter for a team that is aiming to win the World Test Championship.
Nasser Hussain Criticises Captain Ollie Pope
With him being bowled in such a spectacular fashion, Nasser Hussain wrote in a column for the Daily Mail that it is Ollie’s stance that is the root cause of him regularly getting trapped in front of the wickets.
“I did a piece on Sky showing how 48 percent of Pope’s dismissals have been either LBW or bowled to pace. He looks rushed and off balance. I think his triggers are slightly late, and he’s getting trapped on the crease because of it,” he wrote.
Hussain then went on to write that Pope should look at his low average and work with England batting coach Marcus Trescothick to improve his technique, writing,
“Now he can look at it and say they’re very good deliveries because they are, or he could look at it and say that’s why I’m averaging 35 and I need to improve. I think he needs to have an honest conversation with Marcus Trescothick and see what could be done about it.”
Nasser Hussain then went into Ollie Pope, blaming the stand-in skipper for costing other people their form as he suggested that batters going in to bat after Pope would be fidgety after seeing him bat.
“If I was the next batter in after Pope, I’d be a little bit fidgety and nervy, but if I’m after Brook, I’d be a lot more comfortable. With Brook, I’ve never looked at him and thought, ‘Crikey, he looks worried at the crease.’ He’s got such good hand-eye coordination and just loves batting. You saw the disappointment on his face when he got that jaffa from Prabath Jayasuriya when he was on 56,” Nasser concluded.
It was Sri Lanka who won the toss and decided to bat first, only managing to score 236 as No. 9 batter Nilan Rathnayake scored an all-important 72. In response, the English scored 260/6 on Day 2, with Joe Root and Harry Brook scoring half-centuries.
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