Ollie Pope interview: England fans taunted me and that was hard

Will MacphersonFri, August 14, 2026 at 5:01 AM UTC

0

Ollie Pope returns to the England fold for the first time since the 2025-26 Ashes series defeat - Robbie Stephenson/PA

At Headingley last summer, Ollie Pope was fielding on the boundary during India’s first innings of the series. Pope had been retained ahead of Jacob Bethell after a six-month debate over the No 3 spot and the pressure was on.

“There were people in the stands shouting ‘enjoy your last Test mate!’” Pope tells Telegraph Sport. “I was like ‘jeez, they’re England fans saying that!’”

Pope is able to smile about it now, but concedes that being taunted by his own fans only made the situation more difficult.

“Every cricketer wants to be liked by the fans. I was at a point where I didn’t feel that very much at all,” he explains. “We are very lucky to get amazing support, and it’s such a cool feeling when people tell you they are happy for you on the good days. But at that time I probably didn’t feel I was too popular in the game... and it doesn’t help you perform.”

A day or two later, Pope scored a highly satisfying ninth Test hundred, which kept the wolf – in this case his good friend Bethell – from the door for another few months. But after three Ashes defeats, with the series already over, Pope was dropped.

“I was understanding, but disappointed because I hadn’t given the best account of myself.”

Pope was unable to reverse his poor Ashes record in the 2025-26 series - Philip Brown/Getty Images

Last week, with Bethell injured, Pope received a call from Marcus North, England’s new selector, offering him a surprise recall as the spare batsman in the Test squad to face Pakistan next week.

No doubt there were times when Pope wondered whether, at just 28, it was 64 Tests and out. But in an hour of need, England have turned back to the experience, adaptability, and team-first nature of a man who has been a Test cricketer for more than eight years and captained the team five times.

“Of course I would love to be in the side, rather than running drinks or heading back to play in the Championship,” he says. “But to know I am still in their minds, have a chance to prove my worth, and that this story is not over yet is a massive positive for me.”

Pope returns to the fold as an unusual case. Sixty-four Tests is a lot. It is more than Ted Dexter or Robin Smith played. But 28 is not scrapheap age for a player whose first-class average for his county is a tick under 60. His Test average is only 34.6, but under Brendon McCullum that improved markedly, from under 29 in his first 23 Tests, to almost 40 in his adopted position of No 3, where he scored eight hundreds.

England were right to drop him, but that does not mean he has nothing to offer.

“I have shown I am a Test cricketer,” he says. “I realise I have not been consistent enough at times. But I feel I have a game to play in all conditions and be successful against the best bowlers in the world. I have shown I can do that.

“I didn’t have the Australia tour I wanted. And there are times I should have left series averaging 50, and I averaged 35 because I’ve not been ruthless enough. Hopefully if I get a go, I can draw on those experiences.”

Pope was determined not to be a “sulker” when he was dropped in Australia. He returned to Surrey, spoke to the England management about whether there was a route back into the team, then to Alec Stewart, the director of cricket, who felt for the team’s sake he should drop a position to No 4. He would jump at the chance to bat at No 3 for England again, but accepts his natural spots are lower down.

Pope has batted further down the order for Surrey this year - Alex Davidson/Getty Images

An injury to Ben Foakes has seen him occasionally keep wicket too. He is averaging a solid, if not spectacular, 56.7 this season with one hundred, his 25th in first-class cricket, although he feels he let a few others slip. He expected to “dread” England playing Test cricket again in June, but instead sat down and watched happily “as a fan again”, even if he did not enjoy the results.

“I am an optimistic person and have learnt from previous experiences and setbacks,” he says. “I was gutted, but took the emotion out of it quickly. I still have my best years to come. I am in a privileged position where I get to play at Surrey with a great team, great ground, good pitch, great crowds.”

Advertisement

This has included what Pope calls “work away from the limelight” with Stuart Welch, his former Cranleigh school coach. We are speaking the day after Pope’s whistle-stop Hundred campaign with MI London, and he is wasting no time in returning to Welch to tune up his red-ball game before heading north to Leeds. This is especially important now, after the Hundred, which he describes as “great, but weird being in the middle of the summer and not really batting”, given his role as a finisher. He batted only three times, twice not out in wins, and once enduring the indignity of being timed out.

Pope in action for MI London against Trent Rockets at the Oval - Matt Lewis/Getty Images

“[Welch] is a top coach and I regretted not hitting with him a bit more over a couple of years,” he says. “That is no disrespect to my Surrey and England coaches, who are very good, but they are looking after a full squad of players, and don’t get to put in that individual time one-to-one. It’s nice to have a sounding board away from that environment, he probably knows my game as well as anyone.”

‘My Ashes issue was not mindset – it was technical’

Such work is because Pope believes it was his technique that let him down in Australia. His Ashes record is a blot: in eight Tests, he averages 17.6 with no wins, or fifties.

“I look at my Ashes experience, and I am not hiding behind that my numbers are nowhere near good enough,” he says. “If I earn the right to get into that XI, there is a lot I want to prove on that stage.”

When he first faced Australia, in 2021, he believes he was “not good enough, not an international-level batter”, and in 2023 he was frustrated to dislocate his shoulder early in the second Test, ending his series. But the frustration this winter was that he should have been ready, and felt it.

“I think there’s a bit of a misconception publicly that it’s the mental side of Australia that I struggled with, that I was too caught up in the emotions of the situation,” he says. “I couldn’t disagree with that more.

“In the first Test, my game was in a good spot, and I played well. There were nerves on the first day at the Optus and I was in in the first over, knowing this is as big as it gets. I only got 46, played well, and should have kicked on.

“The [issue] was not mindset. It was a few little technical things that I tried to work on before the series and had not smoothed out as much as I should. It was technical, and game plan as well. I was trying to overhit the ball when I thought I had one in my area.

“My bat path wasn’t as good as it should be. That was a technical thing I had last summer that I didn’t pick up on personally. I didn’t groove it enough before the Ashes. You don’t need to be perfect to get a hundred, but if things aren’t near their best at that level, you get found out.”

He cites being caught and bowled in Brisbane as an example of going too hard at the ball. “From there I suddenly felt the walls were closing in, and felt that if I didn’t make a hundred now then it [the axe] was coming”. It duly did, after a poor shot off Nathan Lyon in the first innings and a superb slip catch by Marnus Labuschagne in the second.

Pope is equally as rueful about last summer’s India series, which he started with that Headingley hundred and ended as captain at the Oval, with Ben Stokes injured again.

“Headingley was the biggest Test for me because I didn’t know if I’d be playing. To bang out a hundred in the first innings, I wanted to have a massive series, and didn’t. I missed out on some good chances there.”

Pope was unable to back up his Headingley hundred in the series against India - Scott Heppell/AP

Pope had Bethell breathing down his neck from the New Zealand tour in 2024, when Jamie Smith’s paternity leave and Jordan Cox’s injury meant he kept wicket, the latest in a string of team-first moves – No 3, short leg, captain, keeping – that endeared him deeply to a loyal management.

“Beth [Bethell] quickly became one of my closest mates in the team,” he says. “We spent a lot of time together and suddenly it was me versus him. That’s pro sport. At the back of your mind, does it help, feeling that heat? No. Neither of us really knew who would play, but whoever did was probably always going to feel like that, knowing that if they had a poor couple of games I might get a tap on the shoulder. For those first few years when Brendon took over I didn’t feel that pressure. And the nature of international sport is if you are not the guy averaging 45-50, then you might be the guy in that situation.”

McCullum had offered Pope the chance to stay at No 3 in New Zealand, and he understands now that flexibility can be a “blessing and a curse”. It opened the door for Bethell, who eventually replaced him, but also contributed to his recall now.

Pope is equally philosophical about the scrutiny that being a Test cricketer brings. Stokes once took aim at the media for giving Pope a hard time, but there are no complaints, even about heckling from his own fans.

“I’ve learnt how to deal with it,” he says. “I delete Instagram, the BBC Sport app, keep the Premier League app for Arsenal stuff. But you can block out all the noise, then you get a message from a mate saying ignore what they’re saying about you!”

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Sports”