England batsman Ollie Pope has revealed that Indian captain Virat Kohli warned him not to expect another flat pitch in India for the remaining three Test matches in the middle when he was helping the tourists to pile on the runs in their first-Test victory in Chennai.
After winning the toss and batting in the first Test in February 2021, England posted a mammoth first-innings total of 578 on the back of Joe Root's 228, although, they were bowled out in 46.3 overs for 178 in the second innings, that score was enough to seal a convincing 227-run win over Team India.
In the series opener, Pope came to bat at the middle order, and when he was batting in the second innings; Kohli came to him and warned him by saying “this is the last of the flat wickets” as the rest of the three-Test matches of four-match series would be played on the turning wickets.
Pope said during Surrey's pre-season media day at the Oval: “In the second innings the pitch started spinning quite a lot. I remember standing at the non-striker's end and Kohli came up to me and said 'this is the last of the flat wickets'. At that point, I knew it was probably going to be quite a challenging rest of the series from a batting point of view.”
The 23-year-old has had a frustrating series, as he finished the four-match Test series with just 153 runs at 19.12 and he said they were already chattering about Indian conditions that they have played in.
He further added, “Chatting to the more experienced guys like Joe Root and Ben Stokes, those guys were pretty much saying exactly the same: these are the toughest conditions they've played in. If those guys are saying it as well, you know how challenging it is.”
On spinning wickets in India, the right-hander further noted that it was the quality of English batsmen and bowlers that the Indian cricket team had to change their “game plan” in the final three Tests.
Pope signed off by saying, “I'm not saying [India] felt they had to produce those wickets, but the fact they've gone away from their flat wickets for three days, then spin on day four and five, which is generally the theme out there, it was quite a compliment to us in how we went about our business and a compliment to our bowlers.
That shot us in the foot a little bit but it's a good compliment to us as a team because they obviously felt they had to change their gameplan.”
(With ESPNCricinfo Inputs)
