Ollie Pope is preparing to embrace the honour of becoming England’s Test captain against Sri Lanka this week but admits it is still Ben Stokes’s team.
Pope will become the 82nd man to take up the role when he leads his country out in Wednesday’s first Test at Old Trafford, propelled into the hot seat by the captain’s torn hamstring.
It represents a significant moment for a player who was not certain of his place when Stokes took charge two years ago, but he is clear that he does not intend to leave too many of his own fingerprints on the team.
When Stokes first captained England in 2020, deputising for father-to-be Joe Root, the latter left a message in the captain’s blazer reading “do it your own way”.
But Pope is happy to stick to the Bazball blueprint created by Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum and does not have to look far for inspiration, Stokes having opted to stay with the side in a backroom role for the duration of the three-match series.
“It’s a great opportunity for me, one of the greatest honours in English cricket. But I think it’s still Stokesy’s team,” he said after overseeing a nets session.
“That’s probably the difference, I’ve had no message in my locker but I’m sat next to him in the changing room.
“It’s going to be great to have him around. If I want to lean on him, I can lean on him and I think he’s going to let me do my own thing for the course of this Test series as well.
“I’ve picked his brains a little bit on that moving forward. It’s a lot of the same messages but from a different voice and in my own way.
“He’s obviously going to be watching, chatting, so I can have those conversations in the intervals if I think anything needs to change and we can bounce a few ideas off each other.
“We’ve got some great coaches and obviously he’s just another brain in the changing room.”
England face Sri Lanka in a three-Test series having whitewashed West Indies 3-0 last month. They then wrap up their summer with two white-ball series against Australia.
Additional reporting by PA.