'Feel a lot worse...,' England's Ollie Pope on criticism as stand-in skipper by former players
England batsman Ollie Pope (source: @englandcricket)
England's stand-in skipper Ollie Pope has played down the criticism by former cricketers including Michael Vaughan on his batting performance in the first two Tests against Sri Lanka.
Pope has managed just 30 runs across four innings of the first two Tests but England managed to win both the matches to take a unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
"I'm not surprised," he said after the series clinching victory at the Lord's in the second Test on Sunday (Sep 1).
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"Chatting to Stokesy before this series, when you're captain as well, you're going to attract a lot more [criticism]. To be honest, it is just important to block it out and keep staying close with the people around you. There's a lot of voices, a lot of guys who want to have their say - some past cricketers as well - and that's completely fine," he added.
Pope was named captain after England's regular Test skipper Ben Stokes got injured leading into the series while playing in the Hundred tournament.
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Vaughan was not impressed with Pope at all and had said that Pope is "an insecure human being" and "not the kind of personality" who should lead England.
"Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but it's important for us as a team and me to stay and keep trusting the people in the four walls, because that's not going to help me get back into my best form. Sometimes, when you have two bad games, it can feel a lot worse than it is because of the noise that's surrounding it," said Pope in response.
"For me, it's just trying to stay as level as I can and keep on trusting the people around me, putting my work in, and not really overthinking it, to be honest. When I went and made good runs in that West Indies series, that's exactly what I was playing like, so there's no real need for me to get too involved in what people are saying."
Stokes is expected to be back for the next England Test series while Pope will be leading them in last Test against Sri Lanka which starts Friday (Sep 6).
