There are some young players who you only need to see a handful of times before coming to the conclusion they have a long and distinguished international career ahead of them. Ollie Pope, after his performance during this third Test against South Africa, can undoubtedly be classed among that rare group.
It was not just that Pope, at 22 years and 15 days, became the youngest Englishman to score a Test century since Alastair Cook back in 2006 at Nagpur. It was everything about his innings, from the composure shown to get through a tricky period during the final session of day one, to the ability to grind through 26 balls in the 80s after the dismissals of Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler on the second afternoon, then the chutzpah to go into T20 mode once he had reached three figures and England were eyeing a declaration.
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