Ollie Pope has impressed many by the way he has performed in the ongoing ‘Raise the Bat’ Test series against West Indies. The batsman displayed his batting skills in the third Test match where he scored 91 in the England’s first innings.
Ollie Pope has been quite a discovery for the English team especially in the Test cricket. His skills as a batsman have been acknowledged by many and he is being touted as one of England’s rising stars. He is still short of experience in the international arena but he has managed to impress big names in the cricket.
One of those names is none other than legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. The ‘Master Blaster’ was so excited after seeing Pope’s batting that he couldn’t control himself to appreciate the talent. He even went on to compare Ollie Pope to former England great Ian Bell, who has 13,000 international runs under his belt. Tendulkar noticed that Pope has a quite similar stance and footwork as that of Bell.
“Been watching the 3rd Test, @OPope32 seems to have modelled his batting on @Ian_Bell. His stance and footwork looks exactly the same to me,” Tendulkar tweeted on Saturday.
Been watching the 3rd Test, @OPope32 seems to have modeled his batting on @Ian_Bell.
His stance and footwork looks exactly the same to me. #ENGvWI pic.twitter.com/sEvNKr1YFZ— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) July 24, 2020
Ian Bell responded to Tendulkar’s tweet, simply agreeing to the great Indian batsman.
“Who am I to argue with the great man, @sachin_rt! Hopefully, @OPope32 can kick on and score a big hundred today.”
Who am I to argue with the great man, @sachin_rt! 🙌
Hopefully @OPope32 can kick on and score a big hundred today! https://t.co/iWQmdgkpjS— Ian Bell MBE (@Ian_Bell) July 25, 2020
Pope missed out on a well-deserved century during the first innings as he was dismissed by Shannon Gabriel on 91. However, he made an important contribution, adding 140 runs for the 5th wicket with Jos Buttler. England need 8 wickets to win after the end of third day’s play.
