The Ashes: Ollie Pope makes warm-up century but Joe Root and Harry Brook miss out
Ollie Pope made a century as the majority of England’s top-flight side wasted precious time in the middle of the Ashes warm-up game, but Joe Root and Harry Brook missed their final innings before the first Test.
On the second day of the three-wicket haul in Perth, Pope and captain Ben Stokes shared 137 for the fifth wicket, with Ben Duckett making 92 and Zak Crawley making 82 to make 182.
Between the two huge partnerships England lost four wickets for 16 runs; Both Root and Brook were eliminated smoothly.
Much of the talk in the Australian media focused on Root’s lack of a Test century in this country, and his preparations were curtailed once he hooked Matthew Potts at mid-wicket.
Brook’s swing was terrible, showing his disdain for this type of exercise. Brook danced towards the seamers twice in his first 15 deliveries and attempted a T20-style scoop. Brook again advanced towards pacer Nathan Gilchrist from the 16th over and the ball ended up outside leg stump with a strike. He was out at two.
Pope seized his chance with a 100 and secured his place in the team for the first Test against Australia on 21 November.
Stokes was similarly patient for his 84, slowly finding a rhythm in his batting after almost four months out with a shoulder injury.
The action gradually relaxed later in the day and England used 12 batsmen – Brydon Carse being the extra man after missing the first day through illness.
In response to the Lions’ 375, England were bowled out for 426 – the total corrected by the scorers from the original 382 published on day one.
Mark Wood was at Lilac Hill on opening day with a heavily strained left hamstring. England is awaiting the results of the scan, which was carried out on Friday afternoon.
