Ollie Pope is prepared to “do his own thing” as England Test captain but accepts he is in caretaker charge of what is still effectively Ben Stokes’s side.
Pope will become the 82nd man to take up the captaincy when he leads England out in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford starting on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old Surrey batsman was promoted from vice-captain after Stokes was ruled out after suffering a torn hamstring playing in the Hundred.
Stokes is set to miss the three-match series against Sri Lanka. Pope’s elevation caps a rapid rise for a cricketer who was not certain of his place when Stokes took charge two years ago alongside coach Brendon McCullum.
Stokes first led England, in 2020, deputising for father-to-be Joe Root who left a message reading “do it your own way”.
Pope has no qualms about sticking with the basic ‘Bazball’ approach and will also be able to call directly on Stokes, who will be with the England squad for all three Tests.
“It’s a great opportunity for me, one of the greatest honours in English cricket,” Pope told a pre-match press conference at Old Trafford on Tuesday. “But I think it’s still Stokesy’s team.
“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.”
Meanwhile, right-arm medium-fast bowler Milan Rathnayake will make his Test debut for Sri Lanka at Old Trafford.
Rathnayake will join Asitha Fernando and Vishwa Fernando in Sri Lanka’s pace attack, with the visitors naming Prabath Jayasuriya as the only specialist spinner for the match starting Wednesday.
Sri Lanka, who lost a warm-up match against England Lions by seven wickets last week, have not beaten England in a Test match since June 2014.
Both the second and third Tests of the series will be played in London, at Lord’s from Aug. 26 and at the Oval from Sept. 6.
Teams:
England: 1 Dan Lawrence, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope (capt), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jamie Smith (wk), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Matthew Potts, 10 Mark Wood, 11 Shoaib Bashir.
Sri Lanka: 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Nishan Madushka, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Angelo Mathews, 5 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 6 Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), 7 Kamindu Mendis, 8 Prabath Jayasuriya, 9 Asitha Fernando, 10 Vishwa Fernando, 11 Milan Rathnayake.