"Can you hit the ball straight?" - Alastair Cook gives golden advice to struggling Ollie Pope

England great Alastair Cook came up with a golden advice for Ollie Pope who is currently going through a rough patch of form. Alastair Cook advised Pope to just hit the ball straight and stay at the crease for half an hour.

Ollie Pope has scored just 30 runs in the four innings so far in the ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka. The low scores by England's No. 3 have raised questions over his ability to be in the leadership group.

After England's regular Test captain Ben Stokes was ruled out of the series due to a hamstring injury, Pope was elevated to the role of England captain. Although his captaincy has been good, Pope's low-key returns with the bat haven't helped his cause.

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Alastair Cook gives a golden advice to Ollie Pope

During a conversation with BBC, Alastair Cook was asked to speak about Ollie Pope's poor recent form with the bat. Cook had a simple advice to hit the ball straight and spend some time at the crease to allow things to go his way.

"Well my advice to anyone who's out of form is always, you have to strip your technique back to most simple thing. Forget about trying to change it, and can you hit the ball straight in the nets? That's all I would ever say, watch and hit the ball straight and when you get out there for half an hour, try and bat in the first half an hour, just survive that half an hour, and then everything else comes," Cook advised Pope.

The England legend further gave an example of Ollie Pope's brilliant innings in the past and called him a quality player. Cook reckoned that Ollie Pope's lack of runs after being given England's captaincy makes it such a hot topic in the media. He also added that the pressure will keep building on Pope until he gets amongst the runs.

The pressure will keep on increasing on Ollie Pope - Alastair Cook

"Ollie Pope is a quality player, the 190-odd he got in India, the hundreds he has got, so he can do it. But when you start really in the bottom of your form, when you are really out of form, you really do overcomplicate things. So, I think the best players kind of realize that quicker," Cook stated.

"Unfortunately for Ollie Pope, this story that we in the media is what we're talking about because it is the story. He has been given the captaincy and he hasn't scored any runs. So, you have to talk about it and when that keeps on building and building, it adds more and more pressure. So every time he walks out to bat next week at the Oval, the pressure is going to be even more on him," the former England opener added.

Ollie Pope is England's designated vice-captain in Test cricket. In the era of Bazball, he was promoted to the No. 3 slot and has played some brilliant innings for England from that position.

One of his brilliant innings was the famous 196 in Hyderabad earlier this year against India where Pope helped England to a historic away Test win over India.

However, his returns diminished soon as he could not add much to his tally in the next four Tests.

Overall, Pope scored 315 runs in five Tests at an average of 31.50. After the magnificent hundred in Hyderabad, he could not register a single fifty-plus score in the next four Tests.