Ollie Pope said England’s batters had received a “massive confidence boost” before the Ashes after a record-breaking second day against Ireland in which he and Ben Duckett put on a 252-run second-wicket partnership and the home side declared on 524 for four.
“There’s no denying that Australia’s attack is stronger than Ireland’s,” said Pope, who reached his maiden Test double century at nearly a run a ball. “But scoring runs at Lord’s and scoring runs in Test matches is a habit, a good habit to get into early.”
Pope played second fiddle to his teammate at the start of the day, as Ben Duckett became the first batter to score 100 runs in a morning on this ground since 1924, while the Surrey player ran out of time to secure his own century before lunch. But he accelerated from 97 to 197 by tea, and took only five more balls after the interval to reach the milestone, dancing down to hit Andy McBrine back over his head for six.
Aside from last year’s 73 against South Africa, Pope said he had “hardly scored a run here” before (his next highest score at the ground was 28, against India).
He is also in far better form than during the last Ashes encounter, when he scored 67 runs at 11.16 across three Tests in Australia.
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“That last tour was probably a big learning curve for me,” said Pope. “I was probably a guy who, if I’m being brutally honest with myself, I don’t feel like I knew my game well enough and wasn’t putting quite enough time into my game like I’m doing now.”
He says he has since learned to work smarter, rather than harder. “I’d hit a lot of balls in the nets and think I was training in a good fashion but I probably wasn’t thinking about my technique, and how I was going to attack each style of bowler.”
Duckett’s return to England offered an even more dramatic turnaround. “Even 12 months ago I thought I’d never play Test cricket for England again,” said the 28-year-old, who finished with 182 in his first home Test. “It’s been a crazy six months and to start the summer like that and make a century at Lord’s was something I dreamed of as a kid.”