Ollie Pope is a great number 2 but not a captain

The vice-captain is a very important role in a cricket team, and one that is not highlighted enough.

Ollie Pope is the ideal vice-captain for England. Pope is the ideal partner for Ben Stokes. He is a very good guy, he trains well and he is a real team man, someone who can give tactical advice when necessary and is happy to stay in the background. But it is better to keep him in that role, that of vice-captain, than to make him captain.

Not every vice-captain can be a captain. There are also a lot of captains who can’t be a vice-captain, including me. I wanted to be the leader. I wanted to make the decisions. I didn’t want to be the thinking strategist in the background. I hope Pope gets over his bad patch. I hope he finds a way to get that rhythm. In the time allotted, he won’t be the captain, and it’s all about his batting. Can he find that rhythm and that calm at the crease?

I see it as an assistant manager role in football: it’s a completely different role to a coach. But it’s also a crucial role.

When I was captain, Marcus Trescothick was the most incredible vice-captain – a team player, a great batsman and just exceptional in the dressing room. He was the perfect counter-force. By giving Pope the captaincy now, I think England have put pressure on him that he didn’t need. It came at a time when he looked like he was learning to bat at No.3 and had done well against the West Indies earlier in the summer. Then he’s given the captaincy.

Harry Brook would be better suited to captain the team: his holistic approach makes him a natural successor to Stokes. But if there is another interim period where Stokes is injured and there is a question mark over whether Brook is ready, what is the harm in handing the captaincy to Joe Root? It would not be a step backwards. He would just be finishing a series when we know Stokes is coming back. And Stokes is still there in the dressing room anyway.

I would be happy to be proven wrong about Pope. But I think he is someone who lacks a bit of self-confidence. I can understand why they gave him the vice-captaincy to give him a boost, but he really didn’t need the captaincy at this stage of his career. For all the attention paid to Pope’s captaincy, it will be forgotten when Stokes returns to Pakistan.

Pope has one or two technical issues that I think really quality bowlers will be able to spot. The biggest issue is his lack of balance on the front foot. That’s why he’s frantic, because he doesn’t trust his defence to stay on the ball. So he’s too eager to score and puts the bowler under pressure. If you look at the way Pope’s head falls to the off-side, his backlift almost locks with the face of the bat. So that means he has to turn to play straight. And when his head goes to the off-side, he then moves forward – his right foot and right hip come through, even on the front foot.

Now, all quality teams are going to start a fourth line of stump, looking to bring the ball back. He has to stay straighter and he has to get his head back to the ball. I think he can make that change.

He’s clearly a skilful, fast player. You want those types of players to do well, but he’s under pressure now because there’s so much batting talent in the squad. Jordan Cox, who’s been the reserve batsman in this team, is a very exciting prospect. The technical side of his game needs to be really refined if he’s to guarantee a place against India next summer and then the Ashes the following winter.

Pope has to find a rhythm of play, a rhythm of mentality that gives him consistency. You can only do that by having a solid technique, so that you know how to survive in the first 20 balls. That has been Pope’s problem so far in his Test career.

Pope has the best player England have ever had in the dressing room. He should sit down with Root and try to put together a process that he can apply on a daily basis. I don’t want to look at him, with all his talent, and think, ‘Oh, what’s going to happen?’

Next week at the Oval, I’d like to see Pope adopt a more traditional approach. Take all the time in the world and tell the Sri Lankan bowlers: ‘You’re going to have to bowl to me.’

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