"It's still Stokesy's team," says skipper Ollie Pope ahead of the first test against Sri Lanka

For the onlookers, it’s just Sri Lanka facing off against McCullum’s England. However, for Ollie Pope, the upcoming series presents a major task. Vice-captain of the England Test team for over a year now, Pope will lead the team against Sri Lanka in Stokes's absence. While playing in The Hundred, Stokes tore his left hamstring, leaving the Sri Lanka series for Pope to head. The home series has a lot lined up for Pope, who needs to lock in the replacements for key absences like Zak Crawley and the now-retired James Anderson. The 26-year-old top-order batter recently talked about taking up the leading role and how it is still ‘Stokesy’s team.’

Ollie Pope "excited' to take up the captaincy role for the Sri Lanka series

Ollie Pope was announced as the English captain for the home Test series against Sri Lanka as Ben Stokes pulled out due to an injury while playing for Manchester. While Stokes now eyes a return in England’s series against Pakistan, the current team is left for Pope to handle. Ollie Pope has been a key player in the Stokes-led Test side under the watchful eye of Brendon McCullum. However, it’s finally time for the batter to show his leadership skills and display the learning he’s picked up while being the vice-captain to Stokes. Opening up about the same, Pope noted it’s an honor for him to assume the position, and the task excites him.

"When I got appointed vice-captain, there was always a chance that something like this would happen," Pope said. "It's not necessarily something you dream about, but it's one of the greatest honors I see in English cricket. It's exciting for me, and it's a chance for us as a team to try and take a step forward."

Ollie Pope intends to lead the team 'in his own way' against Sri Lanka

Pope is new to the leading position, having captained in only one match in his first-class career. The top-order batter, meanwhile, has been consistent in the vice-captaincy role under Stokes since last summer. As apparent from his role in the English side, Stokes and McCullum have been training the player for this role for a while now. Now, Pope needs to find his rhythm as the England Test captain in the three matches against Sri Lanka. However, in his latest conversation, Pope expressed that the team will still function as per the framework set by Stokes. While injured, Pope will have the support of Ben Stokes back in the dressing room along with Baz McCullum and James Anderson.

"It's still Stokesy's team," he said. "Everyone's pretty clear how they want to go about this week and this series in general. I think having Stokesy in the changing room is great. "If I want to lean on him, I can lean on him, and I think he's going to let me do my own thing for the course of this Test series as well. I know how well he's managed our bowlers, especially, and I've picked his brains a little bit on that. It's a lot of the same messages from a different voice and in my own way… He's going to let me go and do my thing over the course of this series."

Explaining how things will go about in the series, Pope talked about his batting position. The interim captain will keep his original batting position the same, coming in to bat at No. 3. The 26-year-old further informed that despite a muted outing recently, he’s been putting in the work in the nets.

"Hopefully, it's almost a positive on my batting," he said. "I've still put in the hard work in the nets with the bat like I do for Test cricket. I'm still at No. 3 when it comes to batting, and my job for the team is still to go out and score big runs. When I had a bit of a stint in the T20 for Surrey, the first thing I reminded myself was, when it's batting time, it's batting time,” Pope said.

Moreover, the young captain talked about the key players who will assist him in the campaign. With Crawley’s ousting, the onus falls mostly on Harry Brook and Pope himself. Talking about his captaincy plans, Pope noted that the presence of Joe Root on the field will aid him considerably as he looks to benefit from the experience of Root.

"Then, the rest of the time, you can be the captain and think a little bit more about the team. I've got some great guys to lean upon on the pitch as well, obviously Brooky [Harry Brook] being vice-captain, he's got a great cricket brain, and guys like Rooty [Joe Root] out there on the pitch too. There's plenty of experience to bounce off a few ideas,” Pope said.

The Sri Lanka Tour of England will have the hosts playing three Tests against Sri Lanka starting from August 21. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, lost their only warm-up match against England Lions by 7 wickets on Saturday. England, on the other hand, has announced the Playing XI for the first Test against the touring team.

England Playing XI for the first Test against Sri Lanka: Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, Mark Wood, Shoaib Bashir