"Just because we lost to India, it doesn't mean.."- Ollie Pope reveals whether Bazball is dead or alive!!

England top-order batsman and Test specialist Ollie Pope, who experienced an inconsistent tour of India recently, was hopeful that his side can stage a turnaround in future red-ball outings. The Three Lions, who came over here for a 3-month long 5-match Test series in January, left after winning just the 1st Test in Hyderabad before enduring back-to-back 4 losses. It was the first-ever implementation of England’s Bazball approach and it didn’t go down that well.

Plenty of questions were raised on the Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes-led England team for their ultra-aggressive approach and discarding the old-fashioned way of Test cricket. There were very few individuals who performed well for the visitors in the series and one of them was Ollie Pope whose 196 in the 3rd innings of the 1st Test, played a key part in their 28-run victory.

However, after that knock, Ollie Pope went inside a shell, much like Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, and Ben Foakes among others. Pope recently had an exclusive chat with Sky Sports where he opened up on whether England will change their much debated Bazball style of cricket or not. This is what he had to say.

Ollie Pope says no need to “re-invent” anything after series loss in India

Ollie Pope was asked about England’s way forward in Test cricket and if they are going to make refinements in their Bazball approach. Pope made it clear that the team still wants to play in that particular style and still have a positive intent because it has given them success since the time this approach was adopted.

Ollie Pope also claimed that a series win in India cannot define the England team and how they play. He stated that it’s just about working hard on a few areas where they lacked in the series and that the team is willing to hone themselves in the minutest of details to achieve success in tours outside of their home.   

“Look I think we still wanna be a team where we’re positive. We’ve had some good success and just because we’ve lost this series against India doesn’t mean we need to sort of re-invent the wheel again. I think for us now its just all about tightening a few lose screws, that’s how I describe it. So in a few small ways we can just really hone in and actually become a better team so that we can compete with the guys especially away from home.” – Pope said via Sky Sports Cricket. 

Pope reveals England’s next step going forward

Ollie Pope was then asked if his own belief and confidence in the Bazball approach had lowered or not after the series loss in India. The right-hand batter denied that claim by saying that England are still wanting to play that positive style of cricket with the type of freedom they had in the past. Lastly, Pope revealed that scoring centuries consistently is the next major step forward for England’s batting order.

“No, not all. Like I said we still want to go about that positive style of cricket and that freedom but I think, especially from a batting point of view anyway, I think each batter’s had some very good success in their own positions and each batter is smart enough to know exactly how they need to play and put about in an innings and score a hundred as consistently as we can and that’s our next step as a batting unit.” – Pope concluded.