Ollie Pope opined about the reason behind England's loss against Sri Lanka

England faced a shocking defeat against Sri Lanka in the final match of the 3-match Test series. With this win, the Sri Lankan team climbed to 5th position in the ICC World Test Championship standings, while England dropped to 6th after ending a long-standing drought of 10 years against them.

England, led by stand-in captain Ollie Pope in this match, had been performing strongly during the home season, which included a 3-0 series sweep over the West Indies and two commanding victories against Sri Lanka in the first two Tests. However, the Sri Lankan side bounced back emphatically in the third Test and defeated England at home.

Discussing the loss, at one stage England was in a strong position at 261 for 3 in the first innings. However, a collapse of 7 wickets for 64 runs allowed the visitors to force their way back into the contest. Despite this, England managed a 62-run lead, which they couldn’t consolidate after being bowled out for 156 in the second innings.

Talking about this, the English captain said, "of course, we want to be a team that wins every game, as everyone does, and it's been 20 years since we've done it," Pope said. "That was an extra bit of motivation this week, so there's that slight bit of frustration that we've not done that. But at the same time, 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."

"I don't think it was complacency at all. It's been a long summer, but that's nothing to do with the fact we lost this game.

"We still came to play with the same intentions, but this game, for some reason, didn't quite come off. We didn't get enough runs after having a first-innings lead and I'd probably put it down to that. It was just one of those days where it didn't come off. We played some really good cricket throughout the series and then in a couple of weeks' time we'll be able to look back on that day three, reflect on it and make a decision then."

When asked to pinpoint where they lost the game, Pope said they had "shot themselves in the foot" with their performance on the third day, which left Sri Lanka chasing a relatively attainable total.

"It's disappointing not to be on the right side of the result. Day three, we probably shot ourselves in the foot a little bit. We weren't at our best and credit to Sri Lanka. The way [Pathum] Nissanka played was high-class and they deserved to win this Test. But we weren't at our best as well," said Pope.