As Ollie Pope gears up to captain England for the first time in the upcoming Test series against Sri Lanka, he remains assured of Ben Stokes' unwavering support. The 26-year-old batter is temporarily stepping into the captaincy role due to Stokes' hamstring injury sustained during The Hundred 2024. Despite this setback, Stokes is hopeful of returning for England’s tour of Pakistan later this year.

Pope will become England's 82nd Test captain when the series kicks off on August 21.Addressing the media before the match, Pope emphasised that it's still "Stokesy's team"

"It's still Stokesy's team. Everyone's pretty clear how they want to go about this week, and this series in general. I think having Stokesy in the changing room is great. If I want to lean on him, I can lean on him, and I think he's going to let me do my own thing for the course of this Test series as well. I know how well he's managed our bowlers especially, and I've picked his brains a little bit on that," he said at the pre-match press conference.

Discussing his dual role as captain and batter, Pope expressed confidence in managing both responsibilities.

"Hopefully, it's almost a positive on my batting. I've still put in the hard work in the nets with the bat like I do for Test cricket. I'm still at No. 3 when it comes to batting and my job for the team is still to go out and score big runs... when I had a bit of a stint in the T20 for Surrey, the first thing I reminded myself was, when it's batting time, it's batting time," he added.

Pope is also eager to draw on the experience of senior players like Joe Root and vice-captain Harry Brook. "Then, the rest of the time, you can be the captain and think a little bit more about the team. I've got some great guys to lean upon on the pitch as well Brooky [Harry Brook] being vice-captain, he's got a great cricket brain, and guys like Rooty [Joe Root] out there on the pitch too. There's plenty of experience to bounce off a few ideas," he concluded.