England vice captain Ollie Pope will lead the team in Stokes’ absence against Sri Lanka. ECB confirmed that vice-captain Ollie Pope will take up leadership duties in the absence of Stokes. However, no new player will be added to the squad as a replacement.
Ollie Pope’s captaincy experience is limited to a single first-class match, leading Surrey against Glamorgan in September 2021, though he did take the reins for their 2024 Vitality Blast campaign with regular skipper Chris Jordan away with England at the T20 World Cup. He has previously captained England XIs in warm-up matches in the UAE ahead of the 2022 Pakistan tour and in New Zealand at the start of 2023, after Stokes opted to sit out of both.
Ben Stokes hamstring injury rules him out from Sri Lanka series
Ben Stokes has been ruled out of the rest of the summer after scans on Tuesday revealed England men’s Test captain has torn his left hamstring. Ben Stokes sustained the injury playing in the Hundred for Northern Superchargers against Manchester Originals on Sunday. Called through for a quick single early in Superchargers’ chase, he pulled up injured on completing the run, before falling to the floor and clutching his left leg. He had to be helped on the field and returned to the team dugout with crutches.
A scan on Tuesday revealed the extent of the damage, with Ben Stokes now unable to play any part in the upcoming three-match Test series against Sri Lanka which begins in Manchester on August 21. It means Ollie Pope, Ben Stokes’ vice-captain for over a year, will assume full captaincy duties for the series. He was subsequently withdrawn from London Spirit’s squad for their final Hundred match against Northern Superchargers on Tuesday evening.
Ollie Pope to lead England as Ben Stokes ruled out of 3 match Test series vs Sri Lanka
The ECB said in a statement that Stokes is aiming to return for England’s winter Test tour of Pakistan, which will start in Multan on October 7. Zak Crawley, who is missing the Sri Lanka series with a finger injury, is also targeting the Pakistan tour for his return.
England have decided not to name a replacement for Ben Stokes in their squad to face Sri Lanka. In his absence, Jordan Cox will come into contention to make his Test debut as a specialist batter at No. 6. Alternatively, they could change the balance of the team by moving Jamie Smith and Chris Woakes up to No. 6 and 7 respectively, and select an additional seamer in Matthew Potts or Olly Stone.
Ben Stokes is expected to join the rest of the squad in Manchester this weekend, as originally planned, and it is understood he will try to be with the team for every day of the series, which includes two Tests in London.
At the same time, England will hope Ollie Pope embraces his temporary promotion, having been made Stokes’ deputy in 2023 with a view to giving him more responsibility to harness his leadership potential. His promotion to No. 3 came on similar grounds, which has largely been a success, averaging 44.63 in that position, with five centuries. Former English skipper Micheal Vaughan reckons captaincy would be a huge responsibility for Ollie Pope.
Ollie Pope as skipper of England is a huge responsibility reckons Micheal Vaughan
Former England captain Michael Vaughan has shared his views on Ollie Pope captaining the English Test side in Ben Stokes’ absence for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka. Vaughan feels Pope has a massive challenge ahead of him, but backed the youngster to handle it effectively.
Ben Stokes tore his hamstring during The Hundred 2024 game between the Northern Superchargers and Manchester Originals, which has ruled him out of the three-Test series. The 33-year-old will hope to be fit for the Pakistan tour in October. In his column for The Telegraph, Vaughan opined that the team already looks depleted without Stokes and that England face a conundrum regarding their combination.
“The biggest challenge for Pope is managing without Stokes in his team. The XI is immediately 25 per cent worse than the one Stokes usually has. They will have an early decision to make on whether they go in with a four-man attack, including a spinner, because the seamers are all a bit fragile, either towards the end or at the start of their careers.”
With Pope set to captain England for the first time, Vaughan feels Brendon McCullum’s support will be critical.
“Besides, there is no question that this is still Stokes’s team. Pope is just stepping in for a few games. Brendon McCullum might have to step up and be a bit more hands on as head coach to help Pope out, but he has lots of senior players around him like Root.”
While Ben Stokes’ returns with the bat were mediocre in the series against the West Indies, he was bowling at full tilt.
“I’ll admit Pope did not immediately strike me as a captain” – Michael Vaughan
The former right-handed batter also stated that although he did not initially view Ollie Pope as a future captain, the batter seems like a “terrific guy.”
“In Stokes’s absence, Ollie Pope will step up. I’ll admit Pope did not immediately strike me as a captain. He’s always seemed a terrific guy, a really good man to have in your dressing room. There’s always been a bit of insecurity about his batting, with those skittish starts, and he can sometimes look like he’s got too many preconceived ideas about how he wants to play a situation.”
While Vaughan admitted that the move to No.3 has been good for the Surrey batter, the cricketer-turned commentator still believes there is a lot more work to be done.
“But he is more than capable of becoming a really fine Test player, and has all the tools with the bat. He completely dominates when he goes back to county cricket with Surrey. He hasn’t totally nailed the top level yet but the move to No 3 has been good for him. He averages almost 45 in that position. The big challenge for him is dominating against the best teams.”
The Test series against Sri Lanka begins on August 21 in Manchester. After the three Tests against Sri Lanka, England don’t have any Tests remaining as far as their summer is concerned. They are scheduled to have three T20Is and five ODIs against arch-rivals Australia. However, after inviting Sri Lanka and Australia, England will travel to Pakistan for three Tests. Multan, Karachi and Rawalpindi will host the matches, where Ben Stokes will eye his return to lead the Three Lions.