England players and coaching staff were left scratching their heads after Ollie Pope was told he won’t be able to bat at his No. 3 spot in the second innings of the ongoing 2nd Test against England at Lord’s should he not field on Day 3 of the contest.
Pope hurt his shoulder on Day 1 of the Test while fielding and left the field leaving England camp worried. He though was considered fit enough to bat during their innings.
Pope made 42 as England were bowled out for 325 in reply to Australia’s 416-all out. On-field umpire Marais Erasmus then told England Pope will have to field during Australia’s second innings failing which he won’t be allowed to bat at his usual spot.
As luck would have it, Pope again hurt his shoulder on the third day leaving the field as he was replaced by Rehan Ahmed as substitute fielder.
“He is sore but he should be OK to bat again tomorrow,” England’s spin-bowling coach Jeetan Patel was quoted as saying in the English media.
“We’re a bit bewildered by it all. We haven’t clarified yet with the officials as to why he was told he had to get back out there and field. It’s a pretty tough situation when you nearly bust your shoulder and you’re told it was an external (injury), is it still an external, we don’t know?” he added.
“He had to go back out there. It was always going to happen, isn’t it? He’s so committed to this team he was always going to fall on something, and now he’s back off the field icing his shoulder,” he added.
Patel said England termed the situation as a bit messy.
“It’s a bit confusing. We assume that he was told he had to be back out on the field or else we had to field with 10 men, and that made no sense to me. It’s a bit messy if I’m honest with you. We’re probably as frustrated as everyone else out there that saw what happened, and him, and he’s probably more angry at the situation than anything else,” Patel said.
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