Ollipe Pope feels that this batter is England's greatest

England and New Zealand are going head to head in the second Test after the home side won the first. As opposed to the first match, the current pitch offers a great deal of help to batters and hence there have been four centuries in the first innings itself.

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The Kiwi batters, Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell were the first to exploit the pitch for their centuries. They helped the visiting team achieve a monstrous total of 553 with their tons. The England batters were equally good at the task with Joe Root and Ollie Pope coming with their own tons in reply. The centurion Pope has now come up with massive praise for the star English batter, Joe Root.

Talking to Cricbuzz, the wicket-keeper batter said, "It hasn’t been the easiest ride over the last year or so." The centurion added, “A few tough tours away didn’t play a massive amount last summer. Once I got over the line, it was a relief but I was just so happy. You have to take in those moments, which is something I’ve come to realize over the last year or so.”

The right-handed batter was beaming with pride and praised Joe Root as the greatest ever. Explaining the same he said, "We’re seeing England’s greatest ever. You don’t want to necessarily replicate what he does but try to learn as much as I can off of him. Whether that’s him throwing balls at you for 20 minutes at the end of the session, which he’ll always happily do, and if he sees something – even from the mindset point of view, trying to pick his brains as much as I possibly can, especially while he’s in this amazing run of form."

At the time of writing this article, New Zealand are 25-1 in their second innings with Will Young (5) and Devon Conway (16) at the crease. They are leading by 41 runs and as it appears, the match might be heading towards a draw.