ENG vs IND 4th Test: ‘Don’t know how Jarvo 69 got on the pitch again,’ says batsman Ollie Pope

England batsman Ollie Pope doesn’t know how Daniel Jarvis — also known as Jarvo 69– is able to invade the pitch during the ongoing Test match against India.

‘Jarvo 69’, who invaded the pitch on the second day of the ongoing fourth Test between India and England here at the Kennington Oval on Friday has been arrested on suspicion of assault as he collided with Jonny Bairstow.

The incident took place during the 34th over of the England innings which was being bowled by Umesh Yadav and the match had to be halted for five minutes.

Pope said Jarvo’s appearance didn’t affect him as he only focused on his batting even between the breaks.

“Jarvo has made a few appearances this series. I don’t know how he’s got on the pitch again, to be honest; I try to stay in my bubble and don’t let it affect me. Just block it out,” said Pope in a virtual press conference.

“He just stops the play for five minutes every time he comes on. You’ve just got to try and block it out. The art of batting is to switch on and off – you try to switch off in between. Whatever happens before or between balls, I try to get into a good place for that next ball,” he added.

Pope rescued England from 53/4 as he scored a gutsy 81-run knock before the hosts were folded for 290.

Talking about his knock, the England batsman said, “I have watched how Rooty [Joe Root] has played in this series, how he’s gone about it. Had good conversations with coaches and senior players; I think I recognised that the Indian attack is very skilled. Their main course is to attack that knee roll.”

“As a batter, you’re going to get out somehow whether the team is attacking the fifth stump as much as they can or whether they attack the knee roll as much as they can.

“I recognised that you’ve got to adapt your game accordingly. That’s what I’ve done; probably decided a couple of weeks ago that that was how I was going to go about my business,” he added.

After bundling out England, Indian openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul took India to stumps at 43/0. The visitors are still trailing by 56 runs.