Pope's Mission For England Nod Must Start With Piling On The Runs For Surrey

Richard Edwards catches up with Surrey’s in-form batsman Ollie Pope with hopes of an England recall still at the forefront of his mind

Ollie Pope is confident he can continue his early form into the domestic season – and push for an England recall by the time the Aussies limber up for the Ashes later this summer – all while helping Surrey do their level-best to maintain their place at the top of the English game.

Pope began the season with a sizeable bang, smashing a double hundred against the MCC in Dubai and reaffirming his position as the man most likely to be called uopn if a batting slot does become available for an Ashes Test series that promises to be as competitive as any since 2005.

And such is the competition for places at Surrey at the moment that even a practise session at the Oval could be seen as the ideal preparation for the battles that lie ahead.

“I’ve just come out of a net this morning and I was facing Rikki Clarke, Tom Curran, (Jade) Dernbach – the amount of fast bowlers and seamers we had coming in meant it was a really spicy net,” he says.

“It was relentless having to face all those guys. We could almost put three ridiculous bowling attacks out if everyone was fit.

“That’s a great thing for us to have, and I think that’s what we did really well last year.

“When there was an injury or an England call-up, then whoever came in performed really nicely and put their hand up for the team.