With Ben Stokes being ruled out of the English summer after injuring his hamstring during The Hundred, Pope was installed as the skipper of the side. However, according to Pope, the current England side is influenced by Stokes but he has been given the license to tweak the team. Pope speaks on Stokes "I am sat next to [Stokes] in the changing room and it will be great to have him around. It is still Stokesy's team and if I want to lean on him I can, but I think he will let me do my own thing. He will be watching and chat with Baz [Test coach Brendon McCullum] so I can have those conversations in the intervals if I think something needs to change," Pope said on the eve of the opening Test match against Sri Lanka. "I know how well he has managed our bowlers, especially, so I have picked his brains on it, but it will be a lot of the same messages with a different voice and in my way." "It's about not overcomplicating it for me. I think I read the game fairly well and Stokesy and I have often been of the same mindset. As the series goes on, it will let itself out for me," Pope further added.  England have enjoyed a stellar start to the summer having beaten the West Indies 3-0 in July. They would look to continue their impressive run against Sri Lanka who will head into the contest on the back of an impressive 2-0 ODI Series win against India. Teams: England (Playing XI): Daniel Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (w), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, Mark Wood, Shoaib Bashir Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Dimuth Karunaratne, Nishan Madushka, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal (w), Dhananjaya de Silva (c), Kamindu Mendis, Prabath Jayasuriya, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando, Milan Priyanath Rathnayake