England Ollie Pope’s temporary captaincy starts on a good note

England bowled out Sri Lanka with 236 on day one of five of their first test at Emirates Old Trafford. The English had Ollie Pope standing in on a temporary captaincy basis for Ben Stokes who was injured.

Pope lost his first toss and elected to field first anyway and it proved to be the right choice as Sri Lanka went down 6-3. Subsequently, Mark Wood provided an impressive effort to eject Kusal Mendis, before Shoaib Bashir pinned Dinesh Chandimal with a scuttler, to help England pass by Sri Lanka’s lurch to 113-7.

Sri Lanka’s Milan Rathnayake who was the seam bowler was featuring in his first Test but captain de Silva stood firm to help the tourists look respectable after adding 63 for the eighth wicket.

Milan Rathnayake supported Dhananjaya, who had 74, with one of the highest scores from a number on his Test debut with 72. Vishwa Fernando ended the Sri Lanka innings but the weather conditions forced England to bowl their Paceman, especially in poor lighting. 

While everything on the day was looking in England’s favour, the lighting wasn’t. England’s stand-in captain was enjoying everything in his favour as well as the rest of the team but Sri Lanka’s shots were made more horrible by the surface of the playing area. Sri Lanka opened by bowling with spin, and it wasn’t a bad choice for a bad surface.

By four overs, Ben Duckett and Dan Lawrence got them 22-0 but by the time Sri Lanka would call on pace, the umpires’ decision was made due to the light, leaving 12 overs unbowled. 

Meanwhile, 35-year-old Chris Woakes is looking to be a part of England’s winter tours after the retirement of James Anderson made him the attack leader automatically.

“The more Test cricket you play, you pick up new skills and have more experience to fall back on. I haven’t played an away Test for a little while, but that might be a good thing because it can give you a fresh look on things. I wouldn’t shy away from it.” Woakes said.