The problem with Ollie Pope is that he plays too many shots. The hands are constantly twitching and desperately want to be busy. Sentient energy rather than energy that arises from nervousness or boredom. It's hard to imagine he ever left a piece of bubble wrap behind.
Because of this, he feels vulnerable to attack outside the off-stump. This is also why some England fans didn't quite see it as Test No. 3.
And yet that is precisely why he is absent ahead of the fourth day in Hyderabad, when many thought he would be free. That's how he managed to pull off a hit of this magnitude after blowing out his joint at 1 for 11 two days ago, in his second innings since undergoing surgery on his right shoulder in July to treat a dislocation, which he sustained during the second Ashes Test. This is why, after trailing by 190 in the first innings, England are now, somewhat inexplicably, 126 ahead and dare to dream.
The shot from Pope, already a Hall of Fame inductee, was the kind that had seasoned pros excited. Joe Root, for example, couldn't stop talking about it in his press conference at Stumps, even though he said he was “speechless”.
“That's one of the best shots I've ever seen,” said a man who has witnessed top-class knocks in India from the likes of Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen. Root is even responsible for a pair himself, most notably a 218 three years ago in Chennai, which many would consider a benchmark for success in India. “That’s not me anymore,” he corrected. “I think that’s the benchmark. To be honest, I might have scored a few runs in the subcontinent. But not on such a surface against such an attack.”
Pope's innings, on a pitch designed for one of the most complete attacks of all time, ticks some boxes on the world checklist. Patience. Assessment. Offal. He checked them all, although perhaps not in the traditional sense.
He was in the middle for just over 67 overs but played all 208 balls spontaneously. There were 17 boundaries, crisp drives, tucks through midwicket, all with clean feet, and yet he probably went for twice as many. Every time his bat was hit on the outside edge, he nodded, recalibrated, and offered it again. This wasn't risk-averse batsmanship – it was a batsman banging on Risk's door and then shouting through the letterbox: “Come out, Ollie Pope just wants to talk.”
Ollie Pope scored a lot of runs behind the wicket•AFP/Getty Images
In a situation where runs matter, with balls arriving late from Jasprit Bumrah's sweeping right arm, turning sideways from Ravichandran Ashwin's magical fingers and covered by Axar Patel's hulking frame, it was somehow just that , what was required.
Pope witnessed Bumrah removing Root and Ben Duckett in reverse swing in five overs, saw Ben Stokes lose his off-stump to Ashwin and grimaced when Ben Foakes succumbed to a shin-high scuttler. And all the while he was thinking, “Yeah, keep going.” And just like in the passenger seat of a rally car, you could just think, “That was incredible. What the hell, when Pope walked away with a stunned Indian generation team and cheering supporters when it was over, hell happened?”
Luck played a role. Pope got off to a rocky start that suggested a repeat of his first-inning failure was in store. Of the 15 deliveries he took in that hellish Bumrah spell, the seven wrong shots had no impact. There were 11 botched sweeps, reverses, laps and paddles – the most notable at 110, with the lead only being 67, but which was blown up in the short third by Axar, who failed to grab his own rebound.
However, these errors are kind of the point. Pope is a shooter, and shooters shoot. And part of being a shooter is convincing your opponents that you won't miss, even if everyone does. Although it took him 136 balls to finally achieve a reverse sweep – a four against Ashwin that took him into the nineties – the Indian spinners had already lost the lengths that come so naturally to them.
This imposed chaos is why Pope is considered one of the most important Bazballers and why he always started, even though there was a feeling outside the group that he might have been excluded if Harry Brook had not returned home for personal reasons . Their faith in him has never wavered, and an average in this era that is currently eight above a career average of 36.26 might explain why. Four of his five Test centuries came under the McCullum-Stokes axis, and this was the first time that another batsman did not also score a hundred.
Axar Patel dropped Ollie Pope for 110 in the 64th OverBCCI
The lingering mischievousness at the goal line hasn't diminished Pope's increasing maturity in the locker room. Before the game began on matchday three, he took it upon himself to stand in front of his teammates as vice-captain and issue a call to action ahead of the game's final day.
Apparently it worked. They made light work of India's bottom order, scoring 3 for 15 in 11 overs before Duckett and Zak Crawley, then Pope, reduced the deficit to 101 by lunch. They targeted Axar, the scourge of England in 2021 with 27 dismissals at 10.59, who was punished at eight strokes per over in the morning session. He would reduce this to 4.60 but only manage one wicket from 15 overs.
Foakes, weighed down by his own failure on day one, held his own alongside Pope, who scored 81 in a crucial 112-run stand that gave England the lead. From that point on, Pope paddled anyone and everyone before using the Dilscoop on Jadeja. When Bumrah returned to threaten a late strike, Pope immediately greeted him with a sweet tuck through square leg for his final strike of the day.
England still has a lot to do. Despite the consternation, India are still the clear favorites. England's attack proved nowhere near as impactful – even more so now as Jack Leach's left knee continues to swell from treatment. He was strapped heavily this morning and managed just one over – nine runs long – before being taken out of the attack.
Yet in just a few hours the face of this game has been distorted beyond recognition. All because of Ollie Pope.
Vithushan Ehantharajah is an Associate Editor at ESPNcricinfo