Joe Root Backs Ollie Pope To Break All Records For England

Despite losing a bunch of players ahead of the series with injuries, England managed to find a new hero to take 1-2 lead in the 4-match series against South Africa. The young Ollie Pope showed his class in the middle with a stunning unbeaten 135* in the third Test to help Joe Root-led side take an unassailable lead. The knock came after his unbeaten 61 in the second Test at Cape Town.

Speaking of Ollie Pope, the skipper Joe Root stated that the youngster should be greedy in his career and bag those stunning records for England in the longest format of the game. It was his first Test century in his Sixth Test match. He also finished the game with six catches to his name to take the man of the match award.

I think Ollie’s a wonderful player – Joe Root

Though Ollie Pope took the limelight, it took several big performances from the players like Ben Stokes, Dom Bess and Mark Wood to seal the game. Hailing the same, Joe Root hopes the youngster will deliver similar performances in the upcoming games as well.

“I think Ollie’s a wonderful player, I really do,” said Root to the reporters. “I think he’s smart, he reads the game very well and he reads situations very well as we’ve already seen in his short international career.

“I couldn’t be more pleased that he’s sat here with a hundred under his belt already and I want to see another couple at least throughout this winter because he’s more than capable of going on and breaking a number of records for England.”

Root led his side to victory by an innings and 53 runs in the third Test against South Africa, taking a 2-1 lead ahead of Friday’s series decider in Johannesburg. England were held up by a last-wicket stand of 99 between Keshav Maharaj (71) and Dane Paterson (39 not out) and it needed a direct-hit run-out by Sam Curran from mid-on to clinch the result.

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