Michael Vaughan, who once captained England, has expressed happiness to be incorrect in his opinion regarding the leadership abilities of Ollie Pope who is currently the acting captain. At the same time, Vaughan stuck to his view that Pope is an insecure person as a leader. The match against Sri Lanka at Lord’s saw him score one and 17 when they won by 190 runs. In this series so far he has only accumulated thirty runs across four innings. Additionally, there are questions surrounding why Pope seems to be quite jittery when batting with many also raising concerns about whether he possesses acceptable skills as a captain.
Despite the fact that he was able to rotate his bowlers efficiently and set up cool fields whenever necessary, Pope still had eight reviews that were not successful which raises more questions as to whether being appointed as England’s Test captain was a heavy burden for him.
“England needs Ollie Pope as a vice-captain. He has a great rapport with Ben Stokes. A fantastic man who always trains hard and makes an excellent team player who can give tactical advice when the occasion arises and is comfortable being in the background. However, he is best suited to stay where he is, as vice-captain than being made captain.
On Pope, I would love to be proven wrong. But he seems somewhat unsure of himself. I understand why they made him vice-captain it could have been to promote his confidence but at this point in time Pope did not require captaining at this level. Though much has been said about pope’s captaincy once Stokes returns from Pakistan it will be forgotten,” Vaughan wrote in his column for The Telegraph.
He expressed the view that Pope was restless and nervous when coming out to bat at number three for England. “It’s not every vice-captain who is going to make captain. There are also captains who cannot be vice-captains, including myself. I wanted to lead. I wanted to make decisions. I did not want to be the one in the background who was thinking deeply about the strategies.”
“I hope that Pope manages to regain his rhythm after having a bad run recently with average performances. In some time, he wouldn’t even be considered for captaincy but it’s all about his batting right now. Can he find his rhythm again and calmness when he gets back to the crease?”
“By making him captain now, I believe England has put unnecessary pressure on Pope. This was at a time when it looked like he was figuring out how to bat at No 3 after doing fairly well against West Indies earlier in summer and suddenly he was anointed as a captain.”
Additionally, Vaughan envisages Harry Brook has potential to replace Joe Root as England’s next Test captain. “In the future, I envisage Harry Brook taking up the mantle of captaincy for this team: his entire persona portrays him as Stokes’ rightful heir.”
If Brook happens to look unprepared to step up during another transitory phase due to Stokes’ injury, then why not let Joe Root take over as captain? By so doing he will not be starting from the wrong side but rather oversee a series under the understanding that Stokes will return soon. Moreover, Stokes is usually around in the changing room too.