Ollie Pope believes that England can surpass the 600-run mark within a single day of Test cricket by maintaining their ultra-aggressive 'Bazball' approach at the crease. The current record is held by England, too, but it came way back in 1936, when they slammed 588/6 on the second day of the Manchester Test against India. Pope is confident that the current team, under the leadership of Ben Stokes, has the capability to eclipse that milestone.

England's dynamic style under Stokes' captaincy has already redefined their batting philosophy, and Pope sees no reason for any letup in their relentless pursuit of runs. The aggressive 'Bazball' approach, which emphasizes fearless and high-tempo batting, has reaped mixed results for the English team. While their batting approach has certainly been bolder than any of the previous regimes in English cricket, the results have been fairly inconsistent.

Pope, however, remains confident in the approach.

"Sometimes we might score 280 to 300 in a day but that's OK and probably because we're reading situations. There might also be a day where we go and get 500 to 600 at some point in the future as well. And that's a cool thing to have," Pope was quoted as saying by 'BBC Sport'.

In fact, the Ben Stokes-led team did breach the 500-run mark once in a single day, when it scored 506 on the opening day of the first Test against Pakistan in December 2022.

The last year have been significantly troubling for England in red-ball cricket, with the side drawing the Ashes series against Australia 2-2, and failing to deliver in arguably their toughest overseas challenge in India, conceding a 1-0 lead in five-match series to lose the next four on the trot.

England did, however, make a bright start to the 2024/25 season, as they are currently 2-0 up in the three-match Test series against the West Indies after they followed up a victory by an innings at Lord's with a comprehensive 241-run win at Trent Bridge, Nottingham last week.

The third and final Test starts on Friday at Edgbaston.

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