Ollie Pope is shutting out criticism of his performance as stand-in England captain as they look to complete a 3-0 series sweep over Sri Lanka at The Oval this week. (More Cricket News)
Deputising for injured skipper Ben Stokes, Pope has led the team to victories at Old Trafford and Lord's to leave them on the verge of a perfect red-ball summer.
Pope previously played a starring role with 239 runs in a 3-0 whitewash of West Indies, yet his individual form has dipped dramatically in the Sri Lanka series.
He has failed to make more than 17 runs in any of his four innings as captain, recording single figures on three occasions, while he has also been criticised for his use of DRS with a total of eight reviews going against him during the series.
However, Pope has revealed one major piece of advice he received from Stokes ahead of the series was to ignore outside noise and concentrate purely on the spirit within the team.
"Chatting to Stokesy before this series, when you're captain, you're going to attract a lot more attention and it's just important to block it all out and stay close with the people around you," Pope said.
"There are a lot of voices who want to have their say, a lot of past cricketers as well, and that's fine and everyone is entitled to their opinion.
"But it's important for me to keep trusting the people inside these four walls because that's going to help me get back into my best form.
"Sometimes when you have two bad games it can almost feel a lot worse than it is because of the noise which surrounds it.
"For me, it's about trying to stay as level as I can, keep trusting the noise around it, put my work in and not really overthink it."
The third Test gets under way on Friday, with England targeting a fifth straight series whitewash of the tourists. Sri Lanka's last Test win over England came in Galle in 2012, in a home series that was drawn 1-1.
