by Ollie Pope has revealed a heart-to-heart with his mentor Alec Stewart which helped pave the way for his return to form against New Zealand.
Pope’s association with the former England captain runs deep, with the 61-year-old overseeing his rise through the ranks as Surrey’s director of cricket.
And it was Stewart who Pope sought after a poor series in Pakistan, in which he averaged just 11, raising difficult questions about his role in the team.
The pair came together at the Kia Oval for a pep talk that seemed to bear fruit on the second day of the first Test in Christchurch, where Pope’s 77 and Harry Brook’s unbeaten 132 changed fortunes of England.
After coming together at 71 for four, their stand of 151 helped take the tourists to 319 for five at the close – just 29 behind with power to add.
Pope’s score was 22 more than he had managed in five innings combined on the turning pitches of Multan and Islamabad and he thanked Stewart for helping him concentrate.
“I couldn’t get Stewy to throw balls at the dog stick, he’s too high for that I think,” he said.
“But I had an open discussion with him and it’s probably healthy to talk to someone on the outside who is watching you. Sometimes that’s a good opinion to have. I gained a lot from coming back and talking to him.
“The trip to Pakistan was not easy and I was not good enough to find a solution. For me, it was really important to draw a line under it.
“I knew if I could get myself in the right headspace, I could start the series strong; Luckily I did that and hopefully I can get going and score a lot more points in this series.
Pope’s productive knock also coincided with a role change, taking the wicketkeeping gloves after Jordan Cox’s broken thumb and moving from number three in the order to six.
There is a school of thought that Pope’s creation style is best suited to the lower middle order and seeing him thrive there only underlines that argument.
But while Pope is willing to fill whatever position his teammates need him to – including extending his temporary stint with the gloves for the remainder of the series – he has made it clear he has no interest in giving up the pivot position which he had held since the start of the season. over the last two and a half years.
“I want to be number three; I want to keep trying to make it my own,” he said.
“I had too many bad scores there, but I also managed to string together some good shots this year. It’s definitely work I want to continue doing.
Despite his productive stay, Pope would be forgiven for cursing his bad luck after falling to an incredibly good one-handed catch from Glenn Phillips.
This display of skill and athleticism was out of sync with an otherwise sloppy display by the Kiwis, who dropped Brook four times (on 18, 41, 70 and 106) and also passed up opportunities from Ben Duckett and Ben Stokes.
“As I was leaving Brooky came over and apologized, I wondered why he rushed to me,” he said.
“It was a great catch by Glenn, fair play to him, but another day that goes four and you’re ready to go for a really big score. It’s funny how the game plays out.”
