Stuart Broad tips Ollie Pope as future England Test cricket captain
Ollie Pope has said he will continue to develop his cricket brain amid a mounting body of evidence he is being groomed as a future England Test captain.
Ben Stokes has never officially named a deputy and when a virus placed his participation in last summer’s Headingley Test against New Zealand in doubt, it was Stuart Broad who was placed on standby to lead the team.
Broad’s paternity leave during the tour of Pakistan last December has since seen Pope assume the standby position, and the Surrey right-hander – 11 years Broad’s junior – was the official skipper for the warm-up fixtures in Abu Dhabi and Hamilton this past week as
Stokes was rested.
“I think Popey is a great leader in the group,” said Broad, back for this New Zealand tour. “He’s grown so much in the last year, the way he operates, the confidence and responsibility he’s been given. There’s no doubt you can see him as a future England captain.”
The nickname “FEC” was given to a young Mike Atherton back in the day – the joke went that the E stood for educated, with the other two letters slightly ruder words – and though Pope doesn’t intend to claim it, the notion is starting to grow on him.
Pope said: “It’s not a conversation that’s necessarily been had. Stokesy is the captain, he knows exactly how he wants to run it. He comes up and bounces ideas off me sometimes, and he’ll do the same with some of the really experienced guys too.
“I’m going to keep developing my cricket brain. If that opportunity comes up in the future, I’ll make sure I can learn as much as possible before then.
“But at the same time, I realise I’ve got a big job at No 3 to keep doing. If I can keep impressing there, who know what the future holds. I’ll keep learning and developing as an all-round crick
eter as much as I can. If that happens [becoming England captain], great. If not, that’s OK.”
These opportunities for Pope to lead are gold dust in the modern era, with Stokes and predecessors Joe Root and Alastair Cook all beamed up to planet England at a young age and thus having minimal experience at county level upon taking the top job.
Though captain at Cranleigh School growing up, Pope has performed the role just once for Surrey – a run-soaked draw against Glamorgan at the Oval in 2021 that was remembered with a grimace and a smile on Friday, the visitors sticking 672 runs on the board before he personally made 274 in response.
For now the focus is on facing New Zealand’s attack in next week’s daynight first Test at Mount Maunganui. The Black Caps will be the first team to get a second crack at England’s new aggressive style under Stokes, having suffered a 3-0 defeat last year. “I’m interested to see [how they respond]; to see if they adjust,” Pope said. “But at the same time, that series in the summer, each of those Test matches there were points where it could have gone either way. So they’ll probably see it from that perspective and also trust what they do in their own conditions.
“We’ve sort of seen glimpses of the way we play going to other teams at points and so it’ll be interesting to see if anything that we’ve done has rubbed off on them.”
New Zealand will be under new leadership also, Tim Southee having taken over from Kane Williamson since that memorable encounter and set for his first home series in charge after the recent 0-0 stalemate in Pakistan.
Trent Boult will be missing for the hosts, however, with the left-armer – architect of England’s 58 all out during their last pink-ball Test in New Zealand five years ago –opting out of the series as he pursues Twenty20 opportunities.
Pope added: “He has definitely got me out a couple of times [three], so you can obviously see the positives. You also want Test cricket to be the best versus the best and challenge yourself. But they’ve got some high quality bowlers to come in for him.”