E
ngland took the sphere with out Ollie Pope on Thursday morning because the batter continues to be assessed following a shoulder damage on day one of many second Ashes Test at Lord’s.
Pope was pressured off quickly after lunch, having damage his proper shoulder whereas diving to make a cease, and was unable to return to motion for the rest of the day.
The Surrey batter has struggled with shoulder issues prior to now, however they’ve been along with his left shoulder, which Pope dislocated whereas fielding in opposition to Pakistan in the summertime of 2020, an damage that stored him sidelined for 4 months.
Crucially, as a result of the damage is exterior, offered he’s match England’s vice-captain will nonetheless be allowed to bat in his common place of No3 relatively than being pressured down the order. That is critical since England’s batting is already weaker than at Edgbaston, with Josh Tongue coming into the aspect instead of Moeen Ali, and substitutes are solely permitted within the case of concussion.
Lord’s had promised ramped-up safety measures in a bid to forestall additional disruption after Just Stop Oil protestors launched a pitch invasion on the primary morning.
Visitors arriving on the floor needed to bear extra thorough bag checks, whereas the variety of stewards stationed across the enjoying discipline wasincreased. Importantly, some stewards have been additionally being requested to face nearer to the boundary edge, contained in the LED promoting hoardings, within the hope of a swifter response ought to demonstrators break onto the sphere once more.
On Wednesday, solely the interventions of Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes and David Warner prevented the protestors reaching the sq. with their trademark orange dye earlier than safety employees have been in a position to act.
In the wars: England vice-captain Ollie Pope suffered a shoulder damage at Lord’s on day one
/ PA
“Me and Stokesy didn’t really know what to do,” Warner stated. “We’d been warned beforehand that it might happen and for us we wanted to protect our wicket.
“It’s a touchy situation, you don’t want to be involved but we wanted to stop them getting onto the wicket. It was quite confronting because you don’t know what to do, you usually let those people run their course but because they could potentially damage the wicket we felt like we had to intervene.”
Despite morning rain in London, play began on time, with Australia 339 for 5 and Lord’s decked out in pink on the bottom’s annual fundraising day for the Ruth Strauss Foundation, the charity arrange by ex-England captain Andrew Strauss in reminiscence of his late spouse.
