A special mention for Ollie “supermarket shelf stacker” Pope1, 196, 23, 23, 39, 3, 0, 0, 11, 19315 runsAverage 31.5Aside the fluke century, average 13.2243 testsAverage 34.04Remove that benefit match 205 against Ireland 42 testsAverage 31.63Truly pathetic
Everyone loves a bit of root mathsPope averages 40 at 3 which isn't bad.He scored a match winning 196, which was breathtaking.Just depends how you look at things.India were much better, and our middle order was horrific.Our spinners did manfully given how little cricket they have played.Learn a bit, try to bat for 100 plus overs and we will win games.The opening batters did significantly better ham expected.Ashwin is a master.Separately if this name calling carries on I will suspend membership to the forum. There is no need for it.
That does assume that Pope won't improve in the foreseeable future. He's young enough to grow into the role and become a staple of the top order.
I really wanted him to build a career at 3 as he looks so good when he gets going but I suspect he may to have move down the order to have a long term international future. Suspect Brook will be gunning for 4 when Root retires, so that leaves 5/6 as options for Pope long term.