India’s wicket-keeper bat Dinesh Karthik believes Ollie Pope looked confident at the start of his innings on the third day’s play against India in the opening Test match at Hyderabad. Pope looked fidgety in the first innings and he was dismissed after scoring a solitary run while poking at the ball.
However, Pope was able to turn the tables in the second essay as he started confidently on the third day. Pope made the most of the reverse sweep and batted confidently against the Indian spinners.
The England vice-captain played at the top of his game and scored a brilliant knock of 196 runs in the second innings to score his fifth Test century. Karthik said Pope was able to get his rhythm going and grew in confidence with time.
Speaking to Cricbuzz, Karthik said: “He (Ollie Pope) is one of those batters who is a very nervous starter. You could see that in the first innings as well, he was searching, he was defending, and he was fidgety. Today, the way he started, he got two runs off his first ball. That, in many ways, got his rhythm going, and post that, he looked very confident to play the shots that he has.”
Karthik added Pope must have grown in confidence after he was given vice-captaincy duties by England.
“When a country gives you responsibility, there is a sense of confidence as well. He is the nominated vice-captain. That confidence is coming through. Yes, there must have been a little bit of pressure because we spoke about a lot of batters who could get runs, I don’t think it will be honest of us to say we say Pope doing this today; we didn’t see that happening. It just shows that he believed in himself. But most importantly, this one will put a lot of naysayers to rest with the way he approached things more than anything.”
With the help of Pope’s marathon knock, England posted 420 runs in the second innings and have given a target of 231 runs to India.
