Ollie Pope will become the 82nd man to captain England's Test team when they face Sri Lanka on Wednesday, standing in for the injured Ben Stokes. Stokes is with the squad in Manchester and will remain with them throughout the three-match series, with Pope conceding on Tuesday that "it's still Stokesy's team" as he pledged to deliver "the same messages from a different voice".
Pope has only captained one match in his first-class career, a high-scoring draw in the County Championship, but led Surrey in eight T20 Blast matches this season. He has been England's official vice-captain since the start of last summer and with Stokes out of the series after tearing his hamstring in the Hundred, Pope will have three Tests to find his feet in the role.
"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 honours I see in English cricket. It's exciting for me, and it's a chance for us as a team to try and to take a step forward."
Stokes has been at both of England's training sessions at Emirates Old Trafford and Pope has welcomed his presence. "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."
Stokes, who has started his rehabilitation as he targets October's tour to Pakistan, will be one of a number of influential voices within the dressing-room, alongside Brendon McCullum, James Anderson, and the rest of England's staff. "He's obviously going to be watching, chatting with Baz, and I can have those conversations in the intervals if I think anything needs to change and [we can] bounce a few ideas off each other," Pope said. "I think it's only a positive having him around."
Pope had a productive series against West Indies in July, scoring 57 at Lord's and then 121 and 51 at Trent Bridge. But he has only faced 39 balls in competitive matches since that series ended, scoring 35 runs in five innings for London Spirit in the Hundred, and said that he has learned in his brief experience of captaincy that he will need to compartmentalise his batting.
"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.
"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 missed England's most recent Test in Manchester through injury, when they were thwarted by the rain during last year's Ashes series, and the forecast is poor again this week. "I've not looked too closely at the weather," he said, when asked if England would consider setting the game up for a result. "Whether it takes us five days or however long, the aim is obviously to go and win the game."
Sri Lanka lost their only warm-up match against an inexperienced England Lions team last week, but recently beat India 2-0 in an ODI series. Pope - who has never played against Sri Lanka before - is targeting a series whitewash, but insisted that they are not taking their opponents lightly on their first tour to England since 2016.
"I know they've won [against] India, but I think the main focus for us is on ourselves. We know that if we can go and play our best cricket then hopefully, that's enough. We'll respect them as a team. We don't underestimate anyone ... Our target is to go out and win 3-0 but at the same time, we realise that Sri Lanka have got some good experience."