Worldwide Sports News

England wicketkeeper, who enjoyed a successful six games, is part of a side that has quickly changed

For England, this has been a summer of transition and transformation. Compared with the team that beat Australia at the Oval in the last home Test of 2023, the side that lost to Sri Lanka at the same venue on Monday was, on average, five and a half years younger.

In the intervening period, Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Moeen Ali retired, and with Mark Wood and Ben Stokes injured, England went from a team that had taken 2,008 Test wickets to one with 332, from 38,417 Test runs to 22,128 (56% of them scored by Joe Root) and from a wicketkeeper who had done the job in 147 first-class games to one wearing the gloves for the 25th time.

There’s praise for Joe Root, Jamie Smith and Pathum Nissanka, but doubts still remain about Ollie Pope

By Gary Naylor for the 99.94 Cricket Blog

Ollie Pope: 191 runs at 31.8; one catch
His embrace of captaincy duties from the crucial No 3 slot at a time when murmurs were beginning to burble about his form, showed admirable commitment to the team, but may not have been in the very best interests of himself or the group. The value of his 154, anchoring the first innings at the Oval, was demonstrated by the fact that nobody aside from Ben Duckett made 20. Even then, he needed a good helping of luck as he oscillated in and out of form almost from ball to ball, the cogs of his once classic defensive technique screeching. His trust in his charges led to some fine individual performances, but also an almost comically inept use of DRS, trusting advice from those better able to see and hear. But he kept the feelgood Stokes vibe going and delivered the series win, but the collective end-of-term indiscipline evident throughout the third Test will have done him no good in the long run. Grade B-

Pathum Nissanka completed a fantastic century to guide Sri Lanka to an eight-wicket win that meant they lost the three-match series 2-1

Righto, Gus Atkinson has the ball and we’re ready. England need nine wickets, Sri Lanka need 125 runs.

Oof madone dept: *RA Smyth advises me there’s a new Sopranos doc on Sky and it’s glorious.