IND VS ENG, 1st Test: Ollie Pope performed numerous high-risk pictures and executed them beautifully, says Rahul Dravid

India head coach Rahul Dravid credited Ollie Pope, who hit a powerful (196, 278b, 21×4) as England beat India by 28 runs to win the primary Test on the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Sunday.

Dravid opined that Pope’s innings was the turning level within the recreation as India was bowled out for 202 in 64.3 overs in a chase of 231 runs.

“To be honest, 230 was a pretty challenging score on this wicket in the fourth innings, and it is always going to be challenging in India. 230 runs on a fourth-day wicket, which was turning… We shouldn’t have been chasing 230, but Ollie Pope came out, and played a fantastic innings. He played a lot of high-risk shots and executed them superbly. 196 on that wicket where nobody else got a 50 in their side made the difference in the game,” Dravid mentioned on the post-match press convention.

Pope employed the sweep, and most notably the reverse sweep, to perfection, which compelled the Indian spinners to change their lengths. The high-risk shot did pay wealthy dividends as Pope motored on to present England hope and the lead. England rode on his heroics with the bat, after which Tom Hartley picked a seven-wicket haul to humble India.

Dravid was impressed with the Englishman’s shot choice and mentioned: “I certainly didn’t see someone do it that consistently and successfully. Especially the reverse sweep; to play it for that long and successfully, hats off to him.”

READ | IND vs ENG, 1st Test report

In a stiff chase, India wanted its younger batters like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, and Shreyas Iyer to counter England spinners and play a match-winning innings. However, not one of the batters had been capable of negotiate the spinners, with Gill falling for a two-ball duck.

Dravid, nevertheless, backed the kids and mentioned that they might come good because the sequence progressed.

“I won’t be so harsh to judge them today, and in fact, I think we left 70 runs on the board in the first innings. When the conditions were pretty good to bat on Day two, we got ourselves to good starts but didn’t capitalise. We didn’t have someone getting a hundred for us. The second innings is always going to be challenging… We got close, and we have to get better. A lot of our players are young, and these guys play a lot of white-ball cricket, and they don’t get a lot of time to play first-class cricket. They are learning,” he mentioned.

“It wasn’t a flat wicket by any stretch of imagination, and it turned through the course of the game. It was a challenging wicket, and it’s been a challenge for some of our young batters to adapt, but they are working hard, and they have the skill and ability. They have come here by scoring a lot of runs in domestic cricket and doing well in A-team cricket, and they are picked of merit. It is not that we are picking people out of nowhere, and sometimes it takes a bit of time for people to adjust,” he added.

The head coach mentioned that the Indian spin trio of R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel will probably be extra disciplined and can work on which lengths to bowl because the sequence progresses.

“We just have to get more disciplined as to where to pitch the ball, and we will work on it. We will get better at it, and we have some world-class spinners. One of the good things about our spinners is that they have always bounced back. If we get our execution right in the next Test match, he (Pope) will make a mistake,” he mentioned.