England Suffers Big Blow As Ollie Pope Gets Ruled Out Of 1st Test Against India Due To A Thigh Strain

England batsman Ollie Pope has been ruled out of the 1st test after suffering a thigh strain and this will be a big setback to the home team with the number of injured players stacking up. Ollie Pope is one of the better-equipped players from his country and he was expected to have a big series against India with some of the star players, unfortunately, missing out for England.

Ollie Pope has scored 882 runs in 19 Tests at an average of 31.5 and he has scored one century and five half-centuries in his career. The elegant right-hander had a dismal series in India this year and he was desperate to prove his credentials with the bat in the home series.

Jonny Bairstow Likely To Replace Ollie Pope In The Playing XI

England wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow hasn’t been a regular feature in the test format in the last 2 years but he is set to get redemption with Ollie Pope missing out. He was named in the squad for the India series but was expected to be on the bench, however, he will have a big opportunity to make a strong case for himself. Bairstow was dismissed thrice in four innings for a duck in the India tour this year.

“Jonny Bairstow set to resume Test career after Ollie Pope ruled out through injury / @NHoultCricket reports #ENGvIND” as tweeted by Telegraph on Twitter. 

England can still go ahead with Dan Lawrence as the replacement but with experience might just work on Bairstow’s side.

Joe Root Stranded With England’s Injury List

Ollie Pope’s injury increases the tally of the injured players from England with Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes already ruled out for the first two tests. Ben Stokes was ruled out to consider his mental health issues and also to recover from his finger injury completely. Stokes has been England’s best batsman in the World Test Championship and England will have a big hole to fill in.

Joe Root himself hasn’t been in the best of forms apart from the double centuries this year and England is coming off a home series defeat against New Zealand in June.