England bewildered after Ollie Pope forced to field with injury
Jul 01, 2023
London [UK], July 1 : England's spin bowling coach Jeetan Patel expressed England's frustration after injured batter Olli Pope was forced to field with an injured shoulder on Day 3 of the second Test match of the Ashes 2023 series at the Lord's on Friday.
Pope suffered an injury on his shoulder after he dived at the mid-on to stop the ball on the first day of the second Test match. Even after suffering the initial blow, Pope was able to bat at his usual No. 3 position in the first innings. However, his injury was aggravated in the 18th over of Australia's second innings.
According to ESPNcricinfo England were willing to accept sliding Pope straight down to the number 7 spot in the batting order and use a substitute fielder which is the standard process when a player is off the field for a brief period of time. But that option was not offered by match officials.
Patel expressed the disbelief of the entire staff and revealed that if Pope didn't return to the field then England would have to field with 10 men.
"We're a bit bewildered by it all. It's a bit confusing. We assumed that he was asked that he had to be back out on the field or we would have to field with 10 men. And that made no sense to us," Patel said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
"It's a bit messy, if I'm being honest with you. We're probably as frustrated as everyone else that was out there that saw what happened and he's probably more angry at the situation than anything else," Patel added.
Australia ended the day on a strong note as opener Usman Khawaja continued his purple patch and stitched valuable partnerships with David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne to take Australia's lead beyond 200 runs at the end of rain-affected day three.
At the end of day three, Australia managed to put up a score of 130/2, with Khawaja (58*) and Steve Smith (6*) unbeaten.
