Harry Brook has been installed as England’s vice-captain for the Ashes because he is a “better leader” than Ollie Pope, Rob Key has explained.
Brook has replaced his fellow batter as deputy to skipper Ben Stokes ahead of the five-Test trip to Australia that begins in Perth in November, having been appointed captain of England’s white-ball sides earlier this year.
The 26-year-old has been earmarked as a possible successor to Stokes in the future and is highly rated as a leader by England, but the timing of the decision has created questions ahead of a potentially legacy-defining series.
Pope had occupied the role since May 2023 and has filled in for an absent Stokes in five Tests, including during the series against India this summer, though head coach Brendon McCullum hinted a couple of weeks ago that he was mulling a change ahead of the trip Down Under.
The Surrey batter’s removal from role could be seen as a sign that his spot at No 3 is under threat from Jacob Bethell, but Key, England’s managing director of men’s cricket, insisted Brook’s installation came due to his leadership qualities, rather than Pope’s position being in peril.
“He’s the best person for the job,” Key said of Brook. “He’s had more experience in leadership now. Harry Brook deserves it for the way that he has done it.
“There’s not an elaborate scheme that if we take the vice-captaincy off Ollie Pope, it makes him easier to drop. It doesn’t matter if you are vice-captain or not. At the moment, Ollie Pope is the man in possession.
“Brendon rang [Pope] first, Ben rang him and then I rang him. He’s fine. I think he felt that it was coming. Vice-captaincy is not always the most important decision you’ve got to make at times. We could have gone down the road of not having a vice-captain. But when Popey has done it, he’s done it well, he’s fit into so many different roles over the last few years and done them well.
“But Harry Brook is just the better leader, and will be the better leader going forward as well. That’s why he gets that job.”
Brook is set to tour Australia for the first time having broken into the England Test side in 2022, the year following the last away Ashes.
Entrenched at No 5 in the batting order, the Yorkshireman has impressed the England hierarchy since taking over the one-day international (ODI) and Twenty20 sides from Jos Buttler ahead of the home summer, and is an influential figure in the dressing room.
“Sometimes leadership rests easier with people than others, they are natural at it,” Key continued. “Someone like Ben Stokes hadn’t actually been captain that often, but he came in and it sat well with him. When he got the job, you just felt that that leadership didn’t contribute to any extra noise around his game.
“It’s the same with Harry Brook, really. He’s taken it on in white-ball cricket and very quickly set his style and identity, which is very similar to what someone like Ben Stokes does. He’s of that sort of ilk.
“Often, leadership is that thing that you can’t quite describe, but you just know it is there and people follow them. Harry Brook, like Ben Stokes, is someone that people follow. That doesn’t mean that Ollie Pope isn’t, it just means they do it more with Harry Brook.”
Other than the inclusion of Will Jacks as the second spinner, England’s relatively slim squad was short on major surprises, with a pace-packed battery of seam bowlers set to be key to England’s chances.
There was no place in the touring party for veteran Chris Woakes, who had faced a race against time to be fit for the series having dislocated his shoulder in the final India Test at The Oval.
While a group of seamers will tour Australia with the England Lions concurrently with the start of the Ashes, the 36-year-old Woakes is not currently in their planning and could yet have played his last Test for England.
“It’s unlikely,” Key said when asked whether Woakes could yet be called into the squad. “He was running out of time to be ready for the start of the Ashes and then once you get out of an Ashes series, you are often looking at the next cycle. Chris Woakes isn’t in our plans.”
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