Indian bowlers are mentally disturbed due to Ollie Pope's batting claims Rohit Sharma's old friend

Ollie Pope’s innings of 196 off 278 balls in the second innings of the Hyderabad Test is now the fourth-highest score by an overseas batter in Indian conditions. England won the first Test by 28 runs with Pope winning the Man of the Match.

Andy Flower’s unbeaten 232 remains the top-score by a foreign batter in Indian conditions. This was followed by Brendon McCullum’s 225 at the same venue in 2010. Gary Sobers scored 198 in 1958 and now Pope with his 196 stands as the fourth-highest individual run-getter in Test cricket in India.

Ollie Pope scored 1 of 11 balls in the first innings. He made the necessary adjustments in his game in the second innings and played the Indian spinners with authority.

Former Indian spinner Pragyan Ojha in an interaction with Cricbuzz decoded the changes Pope brought about in his innings as he went about scoring those runs. He hit 21 fours in his innings and that he scored those runs in the second innings made it even more special.

“Absolutely brilliant innings from Ollie Pope. Especially because he was playing with hard hands in the first innings which brought about his dismissal. However, in the second innings he played with the spin and with the turn using his hands more” said Ojha.

Also Read: “Virat Kohli isn’t playing..”- Brendon McCullum’s sensational revelation

He further lauded Pope for playing with a positive mindset in the second innings. Unlike in the first innings, Pope was a lot more aggressive and played with an attacking intent in the second innings playing shots like the sweep and the reverse sweep.

“If you watch Pope’s innings closely he was playing with the turn and in the process, he was allowing himself to get easy singles and even if the ball took te edge it would not carry to the slips” added Ojha.

Pragyan Ojha On Ollie Pope’s Innings In Hyderabad

The former Indian spinner further said that Pope showed a great mindset while batting in the second innings and the bravery he showed with the bat. He also talked about how the 26-year-old put out a batting template on batting in Indian conditions.

“Absolutely brilliant innings from Ollie Pope in Indian conditions. He mastered the art of playing the reverse sweep something that former England coach Andy Flower mastered during his time as an international cricketer. He showed how it’s done back then and Pope gave another look to it. Pope disturbed the line and length of the Indian bowlers to his credit” pointed out the former Indian spinner.

He concluded by saying that Pope has forced Indian bowlers to ball to a different line and length somewhere down the line forcing them to change their thought process bowling to him.

Meanwhile, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja are ruled out of the second Test with injury concerns. While Jadeja picked up a hamstring Rahul complained of a quadricep injury. India lost the first Test by 28 runs and dropped to the fifth position on the WTC points table. The second Test starts on February 2 in Vizag.

Sarfaraz along with Washington Sundar and Saurabh Kumar were added to the Indian squad after KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja were ruled out as injury concerns. Sarfaraz came in as a replacement for Rahul while Sundar was named a potential replacement for Ravindra Jadeja.

Also Read: Tom Hartley’s father reveals his son’s unstable mental condition a night before he deflated India’s batting lineup