Ollie Pope confident he can deliver under pressure for England

Ollie Pope believes he is more prepared than ever for the hostility of an Ashes series after fighting hard for his England place for the past year.

The surprise emergence of Jacob Bethell on the last winter’s New Zealand tour turned up the heat on Pope and he has faced near constant scrutiny ever since.

Centuries against Zimbabwe and India in his first two innings of the summer looked to shore up his spot, but diminishing returns in the subsequent months and the decision to remove Pope as vice-captain in September kept the debate very much alive.

Pope finally settled the matter by reeling off confident knocks of 100 and 90 in the three-day warm-up against England Lions and can be all but certain of facing down the Australians at Perth’s Optus Stadium this Friday.

The intensity of the occasion cannot be underestimated, but he feels the constant speculation he has been subjected to will stand him in good stead.

“It’s been good for me to have learned that under the most pressure, I’ve been able to deliver,” he said.

“I know I can deal with that and get the best out of myself at times. Everyone wants to be the first name on the team sheet, that’s pretty clear, but at the same time we’re playing international sport.

“I’ve got to remind myself of that at times, that there’s always going to be someone on your heels if you haven’t quite scored the volume of runs that you would have liked.

“I’ve got so used to those conversations being had and seeing them. I don’t go looking for them, but it’s pretty hard to avoid sometimes. I’m learning to live with it and put my best foot forward. I’ll try and use the pressures that I’m under and make sure I get the best out of myself.”

Pope captained his country five times during his spell as Ben Stokes’ deputy but has now been replaced as next in line by Harry Brook, the white-ball skipper.

Reflecting on that decision, which was announced alongside the Ashes squad, he added: “If they think that’s the right thing for the team going forward, with Brooky captaining the one-day stuff and the T20 stuff as well, then that’s absolutely fine by me and I respect the decision they’ve made.

“I’ve played 61 Tests now…I’ve got that in the bank. There are guys coming in and experiencing places like Australia for the first time and my senior spot in the team is about leaning on those guys and helping them out because I have experienced this and I know what an Ashes tour can be like.”

The next few weeks could prove pivotal for the 27-year-old, whose career average of 35.36 points to a talent not fully realised. That number drops alarmingly to 15.70 against Australia and four years ago he mustered just 67 runs in six innings Down Under.

He has enjoyed better returns since being emboldened under the leadership of Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum, under whom he has scored eight of his nine Test centuries.

“I got dropped pretty quickly in the last series and rightly so at the time,” he recalled.

“I just wasn’t as clear how I wanted to play. I didn’t know my game well enough and I didn’t know the conditions like I thought I might have known them. I think I’ve probably learnt how to bat a bit more on these pitches.

“Growing up a little bit and getting used to playing these big series and games helps. For me, I’ve got complete clarity in how I want to go about batting on each of these pitches.”