'Would be remarkable to choose someone else if their last knock was a 170'

Ben Stokes opined the call to retain Ollie Pope over Jacob Bethell to start the India Test series at No. 3 was a no-brainer. "The 'big selection' idea didn't come from us," the England captain said on the eve of the series opener in Leeds. "It would be remarkable to choose someone else if their last knock was a 170 [171], and that's pretty much all I need to say on that."

Clamour around the exciting Bethell to take up the No.3 spot was accentuated post the tour of New Zealand last year, where Pope dropped down the order after filling in as wicketkeeper. Bethell, who made his debut in New Zealand, hit half-centuries in each of the three Tests but missed the Test against Zimbabwe at the start of the summer owing to his IPL commitment with Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

Pope hit a 166-ball 171 against Zimbabwe, but his eighth Test ton didn't insure him against the selection debate that has preceded the start of this series. It is partly because of an underlying inconsistency to his returns over time. He also hit a sensational 196 against India in a thrilling come-from-behind win in Hyderabad 15 months ago, but that score was followed by more low returns before an upward correction eventually came in the home summer, when he also stepped up as interim captain. In all, Pope averages 43.06 at a position he's owned since Stokes took over as captain in 2022.

"In this day and age it's very tough to not see all that kind of speculation and stuff around it just because of how easily accessible things are. You don't even have to go and hunt for it to see it these days," Stokes said of Pope. "But I think scoring 170 in his last Test match has sort of shown how well he's handled that extra scrutiny."

Looking ahead at the series, Stokes played down the inexperience of his bowling group and called on the returning Chris Woakes to step up on a green-tinged Headingley surface as a bowling leader amid a slew of injury concerns and high-profile retirements. "I think this is correct but since me and Baz [McCullum] have been captain and coach, I don't think we've actually lost a game with Woakesy in the team so again that just proves how much of a valuable cricketer he is to any team that he's turned out for.

"I think him being the leader of the attack, he's going to thrive off that responsibility and yeah he's a quality cricketer... you know the relentlessness that he has with the ball, whether that be new ball or old ball, and then having his ability with the bat down at number eight obviously, that's a plus.

"I think like experience is experience.... Obviously it's spoken about a lot, but I see at the end of the day, whether you've played 100 games or five games, it's the skills that are the most important, valuable thing when you come out to play any form of cricket. Brydon's [Carse] had an unbelievable start to his international career in all formats to be honest and he's been great for this Test team when he's got the shirt, so I don't look into that too much.

"And it's great to have Toungy [Josh Tongue] back over you know the injuries that he had for pretty much a year out of the game. So to see him back playing for Notts and doing really well and getting this opportunity again in England, it's very exciting. So yeah, really looking forward to the boys going out there this week."

Meanwhile, Stokes also shot down the notion that India will be a weakened opponent following the retirements of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and R. Ashwin, citing the depth and resource pool in Indian cricket to speed up the transition process. "You'll see there's been a lot of said about no Rohit, no Virat and no Ashwin that doesn't mean that we think it's going to be any easier than what it ever is against India. The pool of talent that Indian cricket has is just ginormous so although Virat, Rohit and Ashwin have done amazing things for their country on the field, that doesn't mean that whoever comes in to replace those individuals are going to be any less hard to bowl out or bat against.

"Just because of how big the pool of talent is in India and I've spent a lot of time out in the IPL, so I know that there's a lot of it but yeah obviously three massive names three people who have done wonderful things for their country, but it's not going to be any easy for us."