Ollie Pope's rapid transition from inventive T20 strokemaker to heavy Championship run scorer attracted the attention of England's national selector Ed Smith when Pope was given a Test debut against India as a specialist batsman in the summer of 2018. To bat at No 4 after only 15 first-class matches against such powerful opposition was a considerable challenge. He played only two Tests, but he had put down a marker, and at season's end he had contributed 986 runs at an average of 70.43 to Surrey's title-winning season, including a sparkling unbeaten 158 against Yorkshire at Kia Oval, a career-best, as well as some flashes of ambition in limited-overs formats.

Pope, a wicketkeeper full of batting invention, made great strides for Surrey in 2017 in all three formats. It was his trickery as a Twenty20 batsman that most won most admirers, but there was also a maiden Championship century. That hundred came in only his third Championship appearance, against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl, and was full of energetic cuts and pulls as he ended Hampshire's hopes of a last-day victory, the innings culminating in slightly hollow circumstances with an over from the part-time bowling of James Vince, the England batsman, as Hampshire gloomily awaited the draw.

His Championship debut also made him part of a historic moment when Surrey fielded four teenagers against Middlesex at The Oval, the first time that had happened in a Championship match since World War 2.

Pope's 50-over debut had come in 2016, in a Royal London Cup semi-final victory against Yorkshire at Headingley in 2016; he did not take the gloves - he was one of five wicketkeepers in the Surrey side with a sixth, the coach Alec Stewart, looking on, but immediately revealed his busy batting style. He extended his education with Grade cricket for Campbelltown-Camden in Australia, scoring 997 runs in 23 matches. He has also been a regular with England Young Lions.
ESPNcricinfo staff