Stuart Broad earmarks Ollie Pope as a potential England captain
Pope bats at Number 3 in Tests for England (Twitter)
England Test team has found a better and refurbished version since Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have taken the command. The Stokes-McCullum duo have formulated a new solution by mixing the English gung-ho approach to play the purest form of the game. As a result, their Test team have outclassed New Zealand, India, South Africa and Pakistan by a country mile.
Stokes took the reigns from Joe Root, who is almost the same age as the prolific all-rounder. Unfortunately, the Test leader isn't getting any younger with time, meaning the Three Lions have to nurture a successor, with Stokes at the top seat.
There are some names floating in the English media, who can be looked at as Stokes' successor - headlining Harry Brook, Sam Curran and Ollie Pope.
Although the legendary Stuart Broad has earmarked Pope as his pick. Interestingly, the 25-year-old Surrey batter is also considered a potential successor to Root - the batter.
"I think Popey (Ollie Pope) is a great leader. He speaks really well in the group, he's got a great cricket mind and there's no doubt you can see him as a future England captain," Broad mentioned.
The 33-Test match old Pope has also poured light on his thoughts about taking over as captain. He has said he might become the skipper; but at the moment, he is keener on developing a cricketing mind.
"For now there's no title on it (England captaincy). I'm just going to keep helping out where I can. There's no label on it, but it might be an option they are looking at in the future. It's just good to be seen as a leader in that dressing room," Pope commented.
"Stokesy (Ben Stokes) is the captain, he knows exactly how he wants to run it, but he comes up and bounces ideas off me sometimes, and he'll do the same with some of the really experienced guys in the changing room too."
Currently, the English Test side is in Hamilton, where they played a two-day pink-ball game against New Zealand-A before the main series Down Under.
Pope, in that match, led England and had a mediocre outing of 26 as he was dismissed off the bowling of the medium pacer, Sean Davey.