Ollie Pope ‘frustrated’ after missing the summer sweep following the 8-wicket loss to Sri Lanka at the Oval yesterday.
Ollie Pope showed his annoyance after failing to win the third test and missing a shot at history.
The stand-in skipper, however, denied that his team were complacent on the field and refused to put the loss down to it.
England’s loss means that Michael Vaughan’s side remains the only side to have a perfect record in a home summer. They won each of their 7 tests that summer and that record remains intact.
Pope’s men were well on course to emulate that when they were cruising at 221/3. But it was all downhill from there with England losing 7 for 64. If that was not enough, Sri Lanka ripped through them in the second innings for a paltry 156.
England’s performance with the ball was equally shoddy, with Nissanka’s 127 steering the visitors to a memorable 8-wicket win with more than a day to spare.
“We want to be a team that wins every game and it’s been 20 years since we’ve done it.
“That was an extra bit of motivation this week, so there’s that slight bit of frustration to not do it.
“But at the start of the summer, had someone said we’re going to win five out of six Test matches, you probably would have taken it as well.”
The manner of defeat was similar to other avoidable losses in the Bazball era – notably at Wellington and Lord’s in 2023.
The fact that England lost 13 of their wickets to attacking shots again lays bare the imperfections in aggression.
Pope came to Brook’s defence after Michael Vaughan said he has been ‘disrespecting’ test batting by throwing his wicket away.
“With guys like Harry Brook, hey will never, ever get bored of batting.
“From the outside, it looks like that, but they’re guys that want to go and put together hundreds every game.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a lack of an edge but it can just happen in cricket.”