Michael Vaughan explains why Ollie Pope is a brilliant vice-captain but not a captain, says he can’t have him walk in as skipper in Ashes if Ben Stokes can’t play

Former England player Michael Vaughan opined that while Ollie Pope was a good vice-captain, he was not cut out to be the captain of England. Vaughan pointed out that Pope was not a natural leader which made it difficult for him to have that influence on that team in the 5th Test vs India. With the Ashes coming up in 3 months, Vaughan said that he feels that Harry Brook can take up the captain’s mantle if regular skipper Ben Stokes couldn’t play.

“We don’t laud how good some vice-captains are. (Marcus) Trescothick was the best vice captain. I think Ollie Pope is a brilliant vice-captain. But he’s not a captain. And by giving him the captaincy, I can see it a mile off. He’s not a natural leader out in the middle. I saw that last year against Sri Lanka. I have seen it again this week. Say you get to Perth and Ben Stokes, the shoulder or you know, his body’s in bits. Anything could happen with Ben. Fingers crossed he’s fine but just say you go to Perth and Ben can’t play. I can’t have Ollie Pope walk in as skipper. But I can have Harry Brook because I see a natural leader,” Vaughan said in the Stick To Cricket podcast.

'He's a brilliant vice captain… but he's not a captain' ‼️

Do you agree with Michael Vaughan on Ollie Pope? pic.twitter.com/PLTs2LuWTn

— Stick to Cricket (@StickToCricket) August 8, 2025

Pope was named captain in the 5th and final Test match of the recently concluded Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy after Stokes had to pull out due to injury. This led to India giving a terrific fightback in the 4th innings, clinching the match by 6 runs and drawing the series 2-2.

“We took as long as we could to make the decision,” Stokes had said. “I came down [to the Oval] this morning to give myself every chance just to play as a batter – bowling was ruled out as soon as we got the scan results. It’s one of those where weighing up the risk and reward, the risk was way too high. Hearing where it could head to, it wasn’t something that was worth taking a risk on. I wouldn’t expect to put any of my players at risk of an injury like this. So I’ll start rehabbing now and focus on what we’ve got coming up in the winter. Once this series was done I was feet up anyway, so it doesn’t make too much difference,” Stokes had said ahead of the match at the Oval.