England batter Ollie Pope has celebrated the Test side’s renewed confidence after overcoming their sense of “fear” during 2021-22’s pitiful Ashes campaign against Australia.
The Australians cruised to a 4-0 triumph in the one-sided Ashes series, with England hardly putting up a fight across the five matches. The visitors were forced to take drastic action after a subsequent Test series defeat to the West Indies — coach Chris Silverwood was axed and Joe Root stepped down from the captaincy.
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England had won just one of their previous 17 Tests when Brendon McCullum took over as coach and Ben Stokes was appointed captain — but the duo reinvigorated the team with an aggressive and entertaining brand of cricket, colloquially dubbed “Bazball”.
Through attacking scoring rates, unorthodox field settings and brave declarations, England has won ten of their most recent 12 Tests, including a historic 3-0 whitewash of Pakistan in the subcontinent.
Speaking on Sky Sports News this week, Pope confessed England was dealt some “hard lessons” during last summer’s Ashes campaign, where he contributed 67 runs across three matches.
“That Australia series, we were on the back of Covid, and we were on the back of doing 10 days sat in a hotel room. I think the morale in the group wasn’t probably where it should have been,” Pope said.
“So, I think at the minute we’re just really enjoying our stuff and I think from a personal point of view, I’m a lot more confident in my own game.
“I think you need those tougher times like I had in Australia and the fear the guys had in Australia to learn some good, hard lessons and realise what you need to do to be successful at this level. So, hopefully I can really take that into this Ashes series this summer.”
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Pope, who represents Surrey in the County Championship, looms as a crucial figure ahead of England’s upcoming Ashes campaign — he’s been England’s second-leading run-scorer over the last 12 months, plundering 809 Test runs at 38.52 with two centuries and five fifties.
The 25-year-old, expected to bat at No. 3 in his first home Ashes series, is eager for the chance to help England win the coveted urn for the first time in eight years.
“It’s going to be a different atmosphere, having watched it. It’s going to be that next level. It’s going to be great, too, to really get the fans behind us,” Pope said.
“We obviously start at Edgbaston, where it gets pretty noisy, so that’s such an exciting prospect. I think, playing at home, we’re always blessed to have such amazing crowds, which is awesome for us.
“There’s a real excitement in the squad about it. We’ve obviously been playing some good cricket, so hopefully we can just keep on that roll.
“I think, speaking on behalf of everyone, we’re sort of seeing cricket from a different mindset. I think we’re looking to score runs, and it doesn’t matter how quickly you do, and we’re looking to take 10 wickets, well, 20 wickets, in the Test every time and that’s all we’re really thinking about. We’ve just simplified things. We’re probably having a lot more fun as a team.”
Surrey gets its County Championship campaign underway this week, facing Lancashire at Old Trafford from Thursday.
