Former England Skipper Nasser Hussain while speaking to a Sky Sports Cricket Podcast, said that he is positive about the appointment of Ollie Pope for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka.
He thinks it will give him much-needed exposure to a few games before the Ashes series next year.
“I think it’s good for Pope to be captain for three Tests, just in case, Ben Stokes does get injured in the future,” Hussain said. “They need other options. Just like when they go to Australia, and they don’t want a bowling attack that’s inexperienced.
Pope is the stand-in captain for the Srilankan series after Stoke’s hamstring injury
Pope officially attains the captaincy on August 21 after replacing Ben Stokes who has to take due care and rest due to a torn hamstring.
“The feeling with Pope is that it doesn’t come naturally, [whereas] the feeling with Stokes is that cricketing intelligence comes very naturally to him. It feels like he [Pope] was given the vice-captaincy to get him out of that shell, the no. 3 position as well, we believe in you, which I think was the right thing to do.
Hussain wishes Pope ‘the best’ for the series as he has got a good platform to prove himself. He expects that Pope will do his best personally in this extremely decisive game. Hussain also feels that eventually if he can justify his position, then it is also a good sign for the team which needs other options.
England will also be playing without Zak Crawley because of his broken finger. Hussain wishes that head coach Brendon McCullum would be innovative in selecting the players, rather than going back to the players who couldn’t make to the team due to their poor form.
