England started laying off as soon as they lost the Ashes. The English team has shown the way out to Ollie Pope for the Boxing Day Test. In his place, young all-rounder Jacob Bethel has got a place in the playing XI.
The England team has lost 3 tests of the current Ashes series within 11 days. In such a situation, there was speculation that there would be a major change in the team for the fourth Test to be held in Melbourne. However, captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum did not make many changes. Pope was dropped, while injured Joffra Archer was replaced by Gus Atkinson.
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Will Pope’s career end in the Ashes?
Leave alone winning the Ashes, the England team has not even been able to win a Test match in Australia since 2010-11. The careers of many England cricketers have ended after the defeat in the Ashes series in Australia. This time it is believed that the Pope will be sacrificed. He could score only 125 runs at an average of 20.83 in the 3 test matches of the current Ashes series. His best score was 46, which he made in the first Ashes Test played in Perth.
Pope’s Test career never took off
Ollie Pope made his debut in the Lord’s Test against India in 2018. In this match, England batted in a single innings, in which Pope scored 28 runs. He scored 10 and 16 in the second Test played at Trent Bridge. After this he got to play the next test after a year. In his comeback series against New Zealand in November 2019, he confirmed his place in the playing team with innings of 75 and 61 not out.
When he played an unbeaten inning of 135 runs against South Africa in January 2020, he was touted as England’s next big batsman. But his struggles began again and he could not score a century in the next 18 Test matches. Pope was once compared to Ian Bell but his statistics do not justify it in any way. 27-year-old Pope has been able to score only 3732 runs in 64 Test matches at an average of 34.55.
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Scored the last century against India
Ollie Pope’s place in the England Test team was under threat for a long time. He was removed from number 3 and sent to the lower middle order against New Zealand at the end of last year. In his place, Jacob Bethel batted at number-3 and scored 3 half-centuries in 3 test matches. However, when Bathel was busy with IPL 2025, Pope again strengthened his claim on this batting position by playing an inning of 171 runs in the only Test match against Zimbabwe.
Playing at number 3 in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy against India, Pope scored a century in his very first Test match. But in the next 4 Test matches, he scored only one half-century, after which the sword was hanging over him. Now, after his disappointing performance in the Ashes, his Test career is considered to be over.
England’s playing XI for the fourth Ashes Test:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethel, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith, Will Jacks, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue.
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