Ashes 2023: "We Might Not Have Even Been Able To Give Ourselves An Opportunity Of 10 Wickets On The Last Day" - Ollie Pope Defends Early Declaration

England vice-captain Ollie Pope stated that the team will not change their approach in the upcoming matches despite losing the first Test of the ongoing Ashes series at home. Ollie Pope expressed no regrets over their early declaration in the first innings of the match at Edgbaston in Birmingham.

Ben Stokes declared their first innings for 393 runs to put Australia into bat in the last 20 minutes of the day’s play in the series opener. Usman Khawaja and David Warner came to bat just before the stumps on the first day. The Australian openers scored 14 runs in 4 overs without losing any wickets.

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We Gave Ourselves An Opportunity Of Taking Two Wickets – Ollie Pope

Speaking to Times Radio, Ollie Pope admitted that England’s early declaration did not yield the desired results in the series opener.

“I think what we tried to do didn’t pay off at the time, only because we gave ourselves an opportunity of taking two wickets that night, then hopefully rocking up on day two and we only need eight wickets,” said Pope.

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Ollie Pope explained that not declaring could have led to batting for too long, preventing them from having an opportunity to take 10 wickets on the final day of the match.

“Looking back on that moment, nothing changes, and that’s what we’re about as a team. If we didn’t declare, we might have batted too long, they might have, and we might not have even been able to give ourselves an opportunity of 10 wickets on the last day,” he added.

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We Want To Make The Same Decisions – Ollie Pope

England’s top-order batter stated they would make similar decisions in the remaining Tests of the five-match Ashes series.

“We talk about that mindset, approach – just because it’s an Ashes series and there’s a lot more people watching than there is when we play another team, we want to make the same decisions.

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That’s the mindset we’re in at the moment. We wouldn’t change a thing about the game, obviously other than the end result,” he concluded.

England will be hoping to bounce back in the series when they take on the Pat Cummins-led team in the second Test of the series at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London starting on June 28.

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