New Delhi, India

Ahead of the third and final Test between England and West Indies, hosts' vice-captain Ollie Pope feels Ben Stokes & Co. can touch the 600-run mark in a single day. Pope backed England's 'ruthless' batting approach and feels they can create history sooner than later in the purest format of the game. Notably, England have the highest Test run-rate (4.58) since early 2022, when Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum took over the red-ball team. Since then, England's aggressive style of play has become a huge talking point and has been termed as 'Bazball' by the media.

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Prior to the final Test versus the Kraigg Brathwaite-led Windies, which starts on July 26 in Birmingham, Pope told ICC, "There’s a real hunger - there always is a hunger - but now there's an extra bit in that batting line-up. We want to be as ruthless as we can as a batting unit, but still play the way we do because that's our natural game. Obviously being ruthless is being part of Test cricket as well."

Also read: 'If you give Gambhir a choice...': Ex-India pacer on whether Kohli and Rohit can play until 2027 ODI WC

'Sometimes we might score 280-300 in a day, sometimes we might get 500 to 600'

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Pope, who was Player-of-the-Match with a fine 121 and 51 in the second and penultimate  Test versus West Indies, added, "I got asked on day one 'do you get told to play like that?'. No, we don't. It's just our natural game and the way we go about it. Sometimes we might score 280-300 in a day but that's OK and probably because we're reading situations. There might also be a day where we go and get 500 to 600 at some point in the future as well. And that's a cool thing to have."

Stokes-led England already hold the record of scoring most runs on Day 1 of a Test match, when they ended with 506/4 versus Pakistan in Rawalpindi in December 2022. 

Talking about the England-WI Tests, the home side have an unassailable 2-0 lead following a massive 241-run win in the second Test in Nottingham. The series opener was also won by the hosts by an innings and 114 runs at Lord's.