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Alastair Cook says Ollie Pope should start the Ashes at No 3 – and believes the selection of Jacob Bethell would represent a ‘big gamble’ as England try to win back the urn for the first time since 2015.
Cook, who played a central role in their last triumph down under – a 3–1 win in 2010-11, when he racked up 766 runs at an average of 127 – described the debate as ‘quite an easy decision’, and says Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum should stick with a player who has been there from the start of the Bazball era.
‘I would bat Ollie Pope at three,’ he said. ‘You’ve got someone who’s been part of this build-up for three or four years. He’s captained the side and played some extraordinary innings for England. He knows how to score hundreds in first-class cricket.
‘If you get rid of him now, that changes the whole dynamic of what they’ve built up over the last few years, how settled they’ll feel for that top seven. If you get rid of him now, the damage you do to Pope’s confidence…
‘And if it doesn’t go well for Bethell… At 21, he’s an incredibly talented player, and we started to see that at the back end of last year, but that’s in white-ball cricket.
'It would be a big gamble, because if that doesn’t work out, how do you go back to someone you just got rid of?’
Becky Ives (left) and Alastair Cook will be part of the TNT Sports' Ashes coverage
Cook believes Ollie Pope should keep his spot at No 3 for England Down Under
Cook will be part of TNT Sports’ coverage of the five-match series, which begins on November 21, with the broadcasters opting for a hybrid model combining punditry and commentary from the venues – where Cook will be joined by fellow former England stars Graeme Swann, Steven Finn and Ebony Rainford-Brent – with commentary from back in the UK.
The in-venue reporting will be led by Becky Ives, a lifelong cricket fan who has made her name as a football presenter, while the UK-based commentators also come from outside the sport, with Alastair Eykyn more familiar to fans of rugby union and Rob Hatch well known in the world of cycling.
Scott Young, the executive vice-president of WBD Sports Europe, who own TNT Sports, said the plans to have some of commentators based in the UK was not the ‘cheap’ option.
He added: ‘The way the commentary booths are set up, you won’t know where they are.’
Watch TNT Sports’ live exclusive coverage of The Ashes - alongside every Quilter Nations Series match, live Premier League and UEFA club football and more - on TNT Sports and discovery+.
