England vs Sri Lanka: Ollie Pope will captain ‘in my very own means’ as he steps in for injured Ben Stokes in Check collection

​​​​​Ollie Pope says Ben Stokes will enable him to captain England his means as he steps as much as lead the facet for the primary time within the three-Check collection towards Sri Lanka.

Common skipper Stokes is out for the remainder of the summer season with a left hamstring harm sustained taking part in in The Hundred however can be within the England dressing room over the approaching weeks.

Pope, Stokes’ regular vice-captain, says he’ll lean on the all-rounder when wanted however can have the liberty to “do my own thing”, beginning at Emirates Outdated Trafford from Wednesday.

The entire collection is reside on Sky Sports activities as England intention to construct on July’s 3-0 sweep of West Indies, by which Pope scored a sixth Check hundred, in addition to two half-centuries.

The stand-in skipper, who can have fellow batter Harry Brook as his vice-captain, mentioned: “I’m sat subsequent to [Stokes] within the altering room and it will likely be nice to have him round.

Pope will not ‘overcomplicate’ throughout England captaincy

“It’s nonetheless Stokesy’s group and if I wish to lean on him I can, however I feel he’ll let me do my very own factor.

“He can be watching and chat with Baz [Test coach Brendon McCullum] so I can have these conversations within the intervals if I feel one thing wants to alter.

“I know how well he has managed our bowlers especially, so I have picked his brains on it, but it will be a lot of the same messages with a different voice and in my own way.

“It is about not overcomplicating it for me. I feel I learn the sport pretty nicely and Stokesy and I’ve usually been of the identical mindset. Because the collection goes on, it is going to let itself out for me.

“Brooky has a great cricket brain, [Joe Root] too, so there is plenty of experience out there to bounce a few ideas off.

“Everyone seems to be fairly clear how they wish to go about this week and the collection on the whole.”

Root: Pope will not let the game drift

Speaking to Sky Sports about Pope’s temporary stint as captain, Stokes’ predecessor as skipper Joe Root said: “I feel Ollie is a really forward-thinking younger cricketer that has gained an enormous quantity of confidence and expertise during the last couple of years.

“He is well-respected within the dressing room and is very similar-minded to Ben in how he wants to play the game so I think it will be a seamless transition in many ways.

“I do not assume he’ll let the sport drift and he’s the type of character that can take the problem head on.

“The way Ben plays the game, this could potentially happen again so I think it is important for us to see what that looks like.

“It is not preferrred. We would love Ben to be on the market as he’s an enormous a part of every part we do and I am positive he’ll nonetheless have a task to play on this collection, however pondering means down the road I am positive it will likely be a priceless studying expertise.”

‘Potts has bowled his heart out for England’

England have made two changes to the XI that completed the 3-0 victory over West Indies at Edgbaston last month, with Stokes replaced by Durham fast bowler Matthew Potts and Dan Lawrence drafted in to open the batting alongside Ben Duckett after Zak Crawley suffered a fractured finger.

Potts’ choice as an alternative of uncapped Essex batter Jordan Cox offers England a protracted tail, with the 25-year-old or Gus Atkinson prone to are available in at No 8 forward of Mark Wooden and Shoaib Bashir.

Pope is assured England will rating the runs required with Chris Woakes, who has been bumped as much as No 7, having registered one century and 7 fifties in his Check profession and Potts notching a maiden County Championship hundred this season.

With the ball in Check cricket, Potts has 23 wickets in six matches – most just lately that includes towards Eire in June 2023 – whereas he has struck 21 occasions for Durham within the Championship this time period.

Pope mentioned: “We have got guys who can come in and score runs down the order and having three seamers is not the easiest ask, so it is a great opportunity to see Pottsy.

“Every time he has pulled on an England shirt he has not let anybody finished. He has bowled his coronary heart out and bowled fantastically.”

Pope: England will not underestimate Sri Lanka

England have gained their earlier three Check collection towards Sri Lanka – two away and one at residence – however have been overwhelmed 1-0 again in 2014 when the vacationers adopted a draw at Lord’s with a 100-run victory at Headingley.

Pope added: “We don’t underestimate any of the teams that come over here. Our target is to win 3-0 but we realise Sri Lanka have got some good experienced guys who have played a lot of Test matches.

“The principle focus is on ourselves. We are going to simply play our greatest cricket and attempt to placed on efficiency. Hopefully the scoreboard on the finish displays that.”

On his plans if the primary Check is weather-affected, Pope mentioned: “If it rains, it rains. I think naturally, with the way the guys play, we do look to move the game forward. If we play well, the game will move forward quicker than it can do at times.

“If it immediately rains on day three that is one thing that we’d talk about then, however for now the main focus is to exit and whether or not it takes us 5 days or nonetheless lengthy, win the sport.”

Stokes’ harm offers Sri Lanka hope

Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva believes Stokes’ harm has given the vacationers contemporary hope of springing a shock.

De Silva is main his nation’s first Check collection on these shores since 2016 and heads into the opener with the percentages stacked towards Sri Lanka, who’ve gained simply three of their earlier 18 Exams right here.

“He is the balance of their side. He’s the key player for them, when it comes to bowling, batting, everything,” mentioned De Silva.

“A new guy (Dan Lawrence) comes in to play…there will be pressure on him, coming back into the side to open in these conditions.

“Now we have high quality seamers in our facet and we’ve got a world-class spinner with us (Prabath Jayasuriya). If he comes into the sport within the second innings, we really feel we’ve got probability to win the sport.”

Sri Lanka have handed a debut to pace bowler Milan Rathnayake and have at their disposal the wild card Kamindu Mendis, an ambidextrous all-rounder who bowls both right and left-arm finger spin.

Also in their ranks is former England batter Ian Bell, with the five-time Ashes winner working as a batting consultant.

“He was a top quality participant who performed a whole lot of Check cricket and one-day cricket in England. His factors can be priceless for us and as a batting unit, we’re all getting ideas from him,” added De Silva.

Watch England’s first Test against Sri Lanka, from Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester, live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event from 10am on Wednesday 11am first ball)

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