"He's a very forward-thinking cricketer" 💪 | Joe Root on Ollie Pope as England captain

so Ole Pope he's 26 he finds himself pretty much where you were at 26 about to Captain um England he he's not doing it permanently but he's got three matches um tell us a little bit about the qualities that you've seen in Ole Pope um and what you expect from him I think he's a very forward thinking young cricketer um that has gained a huge amount of experience in confidence over the last couple of years in particular um he's someone that's obviously well respected within the dress room and is very similar minded in terms of how he wants to play the game um to Ben so I think it's a it'll be a seamless transition in many ways um for these three games and you know as I say the way he looks at the game the way I don't think he'll he'll let the game drift and have a very similar approach to how things have been in recent times anyway um so I'm very much looking forward to to seeing him go about his business and you know he he's a sort of character that will take the challenge on head on and and really Thrive and enjoy it it's not completely straightforward is it when you come in as a standing I'm thinking of you had an excellent Fitness record you missed one game as Captain I think for the birth of one of your children and Ben took over and you left him that note to say do it your way but you're inheriting somebody else's team it's hard to see Ole Pope stamping anything different in terms of how the team are going to play this is pretty much ben stokes's team and he's just a caretaker for a while yeah and I I almost think that makes it even harder you know when you're you know it's only for a short period of time um but again it's it's a good experience good learning experience good opportunity and as well um unfortunately the nature in which Ben plays the game this is something that could potentially happen again so I think it's an important um important for us to see what that looks like um it's not obviously ideal we'd love Ben to be out there he's clearly a massive part and huge in in terms of everything we do uh and I'm sure we'll still have a big role to play throughout this series but um it as the evolution of this team and things way down the line um I'm sure it'll be a valuable learning experience for him and for others to step into some kind of leadership roles as well um looking back I mean you kept in England for a long time there were lots of highs some lows as well um if you were to kind of pass him a little piece of paper with a bit of advice from all your experience having done it what what would be a a key bit of advice you would pass on try and gain clarity as early as possible in terms of how you want the game to be played and be as level and as clear um on that as possible try not to waver and Tinker just try and be very focused on what plan a and only really move to plan B if you absolutely have to I think there were some of the things that I wish i' have done defitely have had the opportunity I mean I'm not going to look back with any regrets I threw everything at it gave it my best shot and that's all you can really ask of anyone but um yeah I have no um worries that popy will as I say dive completely into it give it everything and give a really good account of himself and and be a great leader for this team um and your role now you're 34 I think are you now not quite 33 Okay but no broad no Anderson no sto no Stokes in this game um suddenly looks quite a different side you're almost the old man of the team it's quite a different there's still a few above still the two senior Bowlers are still um keeping me feel um nice and young but um Brookie called me Granddad yesterday which didn't sit well but um that's all part and parcel of the evolution of of of things um and this team um and you know as a senior player obviously the more and more that becomes the case the more you have to offer in a slightly different way and just open yourself up to be there for the the guys coming into the environment and the guys finding their feet I think um it's something that I really enjoy talking about the game and if there's ways that I can help those young guy younger guys that are um either at the the start or middle of their career um then you know I'd love to to offer something there so um it's it's all part and parcel of the journey the fun of it is it it never stays the same you've got to constantly evolve and and move with the times and um yeah like I say that's a part of the enjoyment is it it's it's never always the same um and that love is still there clear you know we talked about Graham earlier and 2012 when you started a long time ago now a dozen years but you seem to play with the same enthusiasm and drive that you've always had yeah um I I think the the one thing that I said to myself when I walked out to B in my first test match was I'm just remember how proud that 12y old version would be to see you get the opportunity to go out and play for England even if it's just this one time to play a test match for England um he wouldn't he wouldn't have stopped smiling for for months on end so just try and constantly remember what it was like being 10 12 years old looking at watching the likes of graah Thorp going out and and scoring test match hundreds and and wanting to be there um now I've got the opportunity to do that now and you've got to love and uh enjoy and cherish every moment of it because however long 10 12 years however long I've been playing in this team now it seemed to go like a like a flash so um I still I still feel internally you sort of you feel a bit like Peter Pan you never really grow up because there's always young people around you those guys young guys coming in making you and keeping you feel young so um yeah it's um it's easy to sort of to keep that enthusiasm if you ask me