Bayliss calls for side to step up
ENGLAND are hoping Lord’s provides the stage for a second breakthrough act of the summer following Sam Curran’s Edgbaston heroics after naming young batsman Ollie Pope in their 13-man squad yesterday.
Pope, 20, replaced Dawid Malan after the latter’s poor summer continued in Birmingham.
And while the young Surrey batsman only made his first-class debut only 17 months ago, England are convinced, like his friend Curran, he will not be fazed by the international stage.
“Ollie Pope has made an exceptional start to his first class career, reaching 1,000 first class runs in just 15 matches and is the first division’s standout batsman,” said chief selector Ed Smith.
“And we believe Ollie’s performances and character suggest he is well suited to international cricket.
“Dawid Malan drops out of the squad for Lord’s and has not found his best rhythm this season. It may be his game is better suited to overseas conditions.”
Pope has made himself a fixture for Championship winners elect Surrey with 684 this season at 85 despite receiving no assurances about his first team security beyond the first few games of the season.
Batting in the lower middle – generally six – he has proved, both with match-saving and match-winning efforts, he has an impressively calm head on young shoulders. Malan has made things easy for selectors, averaging just 16 in Tests since his good showing in the Ashes. He compounded matters by twice dropping Virat Kohli in the slips in the first innings – something which almost cost them the first Test.
But the panel have also clearly been emboldened by the youthful vigour of Curran, also 20, at Edgbaston whose five wickets and second innings half-century kept Kohli’s hands off the man of the match award.
Curran, who has come through the age groups at the Oval alongside Pope, showed few nerves in what was only his second Test and a healthy appetite for pressure according to coach Trevor Bayliss.
“He wants to be in the fight – just like his brother [Tom],” said the coach when asked about the all-rounder.
“They want the ball, they want to do the batting and when they haven’t got it they are a little bit... they want it all the time.”
England will be forced into at least two changes in the starting XI given Malan’s absence and that of Stokes, whose trial for affray starts in Bristol
by making 20 in a 19-run semi-final win over Yorkshire at Headingley.
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Such has been the speed of Pope’s progress on the rails, sports databases are still playing catch-up on their biography pages. Before his call-up on Sunday morning, a mere 2,000 Twitter followers – and a few more on Instagram – were keeping up to date with his news.
ANOTHER GRADUATE OF SURREY’S YOUTH SET-UP
Pope will be joining up again with his Surrey friend, long-time age-group team-mate, and fellow 20-year-old, Sam Curran.
There will be echoes too of his first county championship match,
Dawid Malan. Bayliss added: “It will definitely be tricky without him and these guys are under no illusions we’ve got things to work on – batting-wise and catching-wise for example. But hopefully winning this one [the first Test] and having that confidence will be a thing.”
Bayliss is not concerned that Stokes’ trial will prove distracting for Joe Root’s side at Lord’s as they seek to go 2-0 up in the five-match series.
“I’ve got no concerns about that and Ben has no concerns about it as well,” he said. “Obviously it’s something we would have liked to have not been happening but that was the same in Australia.
“The boys in Australia just got on with it. There was a bit of chat before the series started but once we got out there it was about playing as well as we possibly can with the guys we’ve got.”
Stokes is answering charges of affray