It was a highest score by a visiting batter in the second innings of a Test match in India since Alastair Cook’s 176 in Ahmedabad back in 2012. Ollie Pope’s 148* helped England overtake India on Day 3 of the first Test in Hyderabad and establish a lead of 126 runs and counting.
An innings laced with 10 boundaries that saw the English vice captain respond to anything and everything the Indian bowlers threw at him. Such was the innings that even former England captain Joe Root, who termed it as “one of the best knocks I’ve ever seen.”
“I’m speechless really,” Root conceded in the post-day’s press conference on Saturday.
“I’ve seen a lot of cricket, I’ve played and batted out there in the middle with a lot of brilliant players and to witness that was really special. There’s a lot of people in our dressing room that have seen and played a lot of cricket that are of the same mind as I am,” he added.
Root, who has excellent credentials in Asia with five Test hundreds, furthermore added that when it comes to batting in the sub-continent, he’s no longer the norm.
“I’m not any more, I think that’s the benchmark,” he said. “I might have scored a few runs in the sub-continent but not on a surface like that, against an attack like that.”
Root also praised Pope’s doggedness as a leader in the dressing room and voiced praise of the new approach that the current crop of England batters have helped bring in to their Test side.
“I didn’t even mind when he ‘big dogged’ me and said, ‘Can you do the press tonight?’ He spoke this morning in front of the group and and he’s grasped the moment, taken responsibility and backed it up in his actions. That’s what you want from leaders within the dressing room,” Root said.
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“As an old-timer in this team, it’s great to see these young lads coming in, really putting their stamp on things and leading from the front,” he added.
At Stumps on Day 3, England lead by 126 runs with four wickets in hand. This, after having reduced India early in the day to 436.
“Regardless of what happens for the rest of the game, I think we’ve laid down some good markers and shown that we have got the tools and skills to really compete in these conditions,” Root said on the state of the game. “Dream the dream. We’ll go to bed and think of what could be tomorrow, then throw everything at the day.”
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