England are all set to take on the West Indies in the third and final Test of their ongoing series. Both sides will lock horns in Edgbaston, Birmingham, from July 26. It is worth noting that England have already clinched the three-game series by dominating the visitors in the first two Tests and registering brilliant victories.
With the third Test approaching, England’s vice-captain, Ollie Pope, came forward and asked for the batters to be more aggressive in how they play in the third Test and clean sweep the Windies.
"I feel that everyone has kind of grown into their roles, and now there's a real hunger, there always is a hunger, but now there's an extra bit in that batting line-up and now we feel like we can go on to do even better things. At the time it was about building confidence; now it's about hopefully we can keep becoming more and more ruthless,” Ollie Pope was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
It is worth noting that the second Test at Trent Bridge was the first time England crossed 400 in both innings of a Test match, and with the third and final Test on the horizon, Pope opined that had they not scored 400 in both innings, the game could have been a closer affair.
"We put on just over 400 in the third innings of the game and had we not done that it might've been a closer affair in the end, We want to be as ruthless as we can as a batting unit, but still play the way we do because that's our natural game. But being ruthless is being part of Test cricket as well,” Pope said.
Furthermore, the vice-captain revealed that the side is not told to play that way by the coaches, but it is the natural game for most players in the squad, which helps them bat with such ferocity.
"I got asked on Day 1...'Do you get told to play like that?', No, we don't. It's just our natural games and the way we go about it. Sometimes we might score 280-300 in a day but that's okay and probably because we're reading situations,” he added.
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