England Test vice-captain Ollie Pope termed his side’s 1-4 defeat at the hands of India in the recent five-Test series as ‘frustrating’. He also added that England should’ve won atleast three Tests in the series.
England had started the series well against India, winning by 28 runs in Hyderabad. But then Rohit Sharma-led Indian team thumped them by 105 runs in the second Test in Vizag, by a record 434 runs in Rajkot in the 3rd Test, by 5 wickets in the 4th Test in Ranchi, and by an innings and 64 runs in the final Test in Dharamshala.
“Frustrating, from the team’s point of view and personal point of view. I think from the team’s point of view and personal point of view. We put ourselves in a lot of good position, probably in three of the five Test matches. We were in the position after Day 2, where we had every chance of winning those games.
In two of the games, we didn’t play anywhere near our best but in the other three, I feel like we could have won each of them. That’s probably the more frustrating part about the whole tour in general,” Pope told Sky Sports.
Pope started well by scoring 196 in England’s Hyderabad Test win. But ended up making a total of 296 runs in the series.
“From a personal point of view, again frustrating. Obviously started with that hundred in Hyderabad and then just couldn’t quite. I think the main challenge in India is that they challenge you in all different ways. They got Bumrah with the reverse swing, and they got the skills of their spinners, mystery spinners. They have Ashwin and Jadeja.
“I think I sort of prepared really well for that first wicket we played on, which probably was the biggest turner. Then we played on pitches that were slightly different and I didn’t adapt my game quickly enough. I never ever felt out of nick but I just could not put together one or two more big scores, which is probably the most frustrating part,” Pope added.
The 26-year-old admitted that the biggest lesson he has learned from the tour was to keep moving forward after every inning.
“The 196, I can use that as a template. After that knock, I thought I was going to score 600 runs in this series. I think that is probably the most frustrating part. It shows I can do against those kinds of spinners in tough conditions. I can take a lot of confidence going forward.
But at the same time, I need to keep working out on where I need to draw a line after every inning and keep moving forward. Keep on reacting to the different pitches quickly as as I can. I also didn’t get as many starts as I wanted. I need to keep working on my tempo at the start of the innings rather than just try to feel like I am in straightaway,” he said.
(Sky Sports inputs)
