Ollie Pope is ready to lead England’s Bazballers in their upcoming three-match Series against Sri Lanka after Ben Stokes pulled out with a hamstring injury.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe current England Captain tore his hamstring whilst playing for the Northern Supercharges in a Hundred game against Manchester Originals.
The Series will begin on 21st August.
Therefore, Vice Captain Pope will be Captaining England for the first time in his career.
“A real honour to lead the side out over the next few weeks. Gutted for the skipper going down but can’t wait to get going.”
Pope: Cricket Times
Pope has 2,690 runs in 46 Tests, at an average of 35.39.
He has some experience in captaincy, having taken charge of Surrey in a County Championship match against Glamorgan.
Crawley Out With Broken Finger
Embed from Getty ImagesJust as you think things can’t get any worse, Zak Crawley has also had to pull out of the Series due to a broken finger.
Crawley, who suffered the blow in the Third and final Test of the West Indies Series, has been replaced by Essex’s Jordan Cox.
The Kent Batter did not take part in the second innings at Edgbaston.
Embed from Getty ImagesCox has 3,039 runs for Kent in 51 County Championship matches, averaging 39.46.
The Squad for the three Tests is as follows:
Ollie Pope(Captain), Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Harry Brook(Vice-Captain), Jordan Cox, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Olly Stone, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
Can Root Surpass Sangakkara?
Embed from Getty ImagesEngland’s premier batsman is just 373 runs away from the former Sri Lankan Left-Hander’s tally of 12,400 runs in 134 Tests.
Root scored 291 runs in four innings of the three Windies Tests, averaging 72.75.
Should he score 402 runs in this Series, he will be the first batsman to score 5,000 runs in the history of the World Test Championship.
446, will make him England’s all-time top scorer in Test Cricket.
Gus Greedy For More Wickets
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Surrey speedster looked highly impressive, picking up 22 wickets in his first Test Series against the West Indies.
His best performance came on Day one of the first Test when he picked up 7-45 to bowl the Windies out for 121 in the first innings.
He was due to play for the Oval Invincibles in The Hundred Final against Southern Brave, but the ECB forced him to withdraw to prepare for the Sri Lanka Series.
Can he get amongst the wickets at Old Trafford, Lord’s and The KIA Oval?
So that’s the latest on England’s upcoming Test Series against Sri Lanka.
Image by Ananta Sarkar from Pixabay