England batter Ollie Pope feels that England batters can soon cross the 600-run mark in a single day in Test through their aggressive batting approach.
Under the leadership of Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum has been successful in their “Bazball” during the recent test match against West Indies at home. England has the highest run rate in Test cricket but currently stands sixth in the WTC 2023-25 points table.
Speaking about England’s batting approach, Ollie Pope revealed the side has an extra bit of hunger to be ruthless in the batting lineup.
“There’s a real hunger – there always is a hunger – but now there’s an extra bit in that batting line-up. We want to be as ruthless as we can as a batting unit, but still play the way we do because that’s our natural game. Obviously being ruthless is being part of Test cricket as well,” Pope told ICC.
600 Test runs in one day 🤔
England batter Ollie Pope certainly thinks his side is capable 😲#ENGvWI | #WTC25https://t.co/wOamoc6R3W
— ICC (@ICC) July 24, 2024
He also added that England batters have the natural ability to play aggressively and expect to score 600 runs in a single day of tests.
“I got asked on day one ‘do you get told to play like that?’. No, we don’t. It’s just our natural games and the way we go about it. Sometimes we might score 280-300 in a day but that’s OK and probably because we’re reading situations. There might also be a day where we go and get 500 to 600 at some point in the future as well. And that’s a cool thing to have,” he added.
Ben Stokes-led England already holds the record for the highest runs in a test match during the match against Pakistan in December 2022. They posted a highest score of 506 in the opening day surpassing Australia’s best of 494/6 in 1910.
England also holds the record for the highest runs in a single day of a test match against India in 1936 where they scored 588/6 on Day 02. Coming to the present, England has sealed the series win after Shoaib Bashir’s five-wicket haul helped the side secure a 241-run triumph at Nottingham.
With having series lined up with Sri Lanka and Pakistan, England will be taking on West Indies in the final test starting on July 26 at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
