England’s stand-in captain Ollie Pope responded to Michael Vaughan’s remarks and opened up on his poor form. Pope, who replaced Ben Stokes as captain of the side in the ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka, has found himself on the radar of several fans and experts for his batting as well as captaincy. Notably, under his captaincy, England beat Sri Lanka by a margin of 190 runs in the second Test; however, despite that, Pope has been subject to severe criticism.
Former English skipper Michael Vaughan labelled Pope as “an insecure human being” and said that he is “not the kind of personality” that should be named as England’s captain. Vaughan, as quoted by Hindustan Times, said, “I don’t like him as the captain. He’s not the kind of personality I’d want as the England captain. “He’s quite an insecure human being, a great team guy and person but throwing the captaincy on him has added to the pressure. He was doing great at number three.”
Pope responded to the criticising remarks by former England great and said that it is important for him to only keep putting in his work and not overthink. He said, “I’m not surprised. Chatting to Stokesy before this series, when you’re captain as well, you’re going to attract a lot more. 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.”
Pope added, “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. For me, it’s just trying to stay as level as I can and keep trusting people around me, putting my work in, and not overthinking it.”