England must drop Ollie Pope for Jacob Bethell if they are to win Ashes

Telegraph

2 days ago

A prime feature of the last two Ashes series in Australia that England have won has been the consistency of the selection of their batsmen. Andrew Strauss kept his same top six in 2010-11. So did Mike Gatting in 1986-87, apart from the one Test when Ian Botham was injured.
Or put it another way: a sure sign that England are losing an Ashes series in Australia is when they chop and change their batting. Pace bowlers have to be rotated in a five-Test series. If batsmen are being rotated, it is a hallmark of weakness.
In this context the decision to drop Ollie Pope has to be taken before the fourth Test at Old Trafford against India. Pope, 27, has to be dropped because four of England's top five batsmen – all except Joe Root – are too similar in age, too similar in background, too similar in experience and too similar in their approach.
The attitude or philosophy of Pope, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett and Harry Brook is the same: Safety last. It is a structural weakness. The result is patterns like more than half of England's side being dismissed for zero in their first innings at Edgbaston, and more than half of their batsmen being bowled at Lord's.
Crawley and Duckett have proved themselves to be England's most productive opening pair since the departed knights, Strauss and Alastair Cook. In this match both were guilty of batsman error in one innings and guiltless in the other. Crawley did the hard part in his confrontation with Jasprit Bumrah, before throwing his wicket away, and proved his toughness, whatever impression to the contrary he may give; Duckett has assets in addition to his audacity.
A loose Zak Crawley brings up India's third wicket of the morning session 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/I2HdqNdZEQ
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) July 13, 2025
As for Harry Brook, No 5 is the position for a counter-attacker who is a law unto himself. It is Pope who is too much of a good thing. Deduct his double-century against Ireland and his 171 against Zimbabwe earlier this season, and his average of 32 is too low, his inconsistency too much.
Twice in this humdinger of a match Pope has had the opportunity to bring off a run-out with a direct hit. On both occasions he did not give himself the best chance of executing a dismissal because he did not set himself before taking aim. This same impulsiveness is all too apparent in his batting at the start of an innings: he can defend, and leave the ball, but at the outset it is all about getting bat on ball, and often playing across the line in this process.
Telegraph Sport 's cricket correspondent Nick Hoult spelt out the case after Pope had scored 171 against Zimbabwe (who have since been hit for 374 not out by the less than highly rated Wiaan Mulder). 'Picking Ollie Pope over Jacob Bethell to bat at No 3 against India is the fair call but that does not make it the right one,' wrote Hoult.
Bethell the victim of realpolitik
The gist is that Bethell, 21 was made unselectable. Having distinguished himself in the winter series in New Zealand, when he scored 260 runs in his five innings and batted at No 3 as if born to the role, he played no cricket at all in the first five months of this calendar year except for a couple of innings as a stand-in in the IPL. Realpolitik, not selection, decided as much: the ECB did not want to ruffle the Indian board by withdrawing any more England players from their tournament.
So when Bethell should have been playing County Championship cricket for Warwickshire in their top order, and familiarising himself with the process of composing hundreds (he still has not made one in professional cricket) and working on bowling his left-arm spin with a red ball, he was warming a bench in India. Pope therefore had to play against Zimbabwe, and booked his place to start this series against India, for want of any competition.
I think the time to switch to Bethell is now, even though he has had just one red-ball match for Warwickshire this season, and that at No 5. When England lose an early wicket, better to have Bethell's composure and defence, for all his inexperience, than Pope's impulsiveness and urge to lay bat on ball. Pope is England's most inconsistent No 3; give Bethell 102 Test innings and he is surely not going to be dismissed 36 times within his first 20 balls.