Joe Root was England’s only choice as Test captain and that is a damning indictment

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“The last couple of years, it sucked the life out of me… I was a shadow of the person I wanted to be…. You talk about not being present: it got to a point where I started to notice it, and I could see the effect it was having on not just the kids but Carrie, my wife, and it just wasn’t fair on them… Once I’d made the decision it was a real relief.”

That was Joe Root, in September 2022 on the Vaughany And Tuffers podcast, reflecting on his decision to step down from the England captaincy five months earlier.

The weight of the job, undertaken since 2017, sounded unbearable. Giving it up was the equivalent of someone removing an anvil from his chest. From the way he spoke about it, the captaincy was something he was deeply honoured to have done, but he would rather have walked on Lego than do it again.

But now here we are, nearly four years later, with Root on the verge of being reappointed as skipper for the remainder of England’s Test summer — they play a three-match series against Pakistan, starting next month — then for another three on their winter tour to South Africa. They then have a two-Test tour of Bangladesh in February 2027, the one-off 150th anniversary Test against Australia in Melbourne a month later, another single Test at home to Bangladesh in May and finally — for now — a home Ashes next summer.

This wasn’t the plan, and it’s quite a situation that England have found themselves in; that they realistically had no option but to turn back to Root. There simply wasn’t anyone else.

Harry Brook was vice-captain under Ben Stokes and has impressed when leading the white-ball team, but you can take your pick as to why there was no way he could have been given this job too. The official version will presumably be that asking him to lead all three teams is simply too much at this stage of his career, which in isolation is fair enough. But there are also several reasons to suggest he simply couldn’t be trusted to lead the red-ball side — from his off-field antics in New Zealand last winter, to his penchant for daft dismissals at crucial moments in games.

Harry Brook does not seem ready to take on the challenge of leading the Test team (Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)

Ben Duckett had a bad Ashes and is re-establishing his form. Jacob Bethell and Jamie Smith are still finding their feet as Test players. There are a couple of other batting spots that are uncertain. They have settled on who is replacing Stokes the captain, but not yet Stokes the player.

None of the bowlers are realistic candidates, if only because you can’t guarantee any of them will be in the team every game given how England tend to rotate their attack.

A wild-card option would have been to bring in someone with captaincy experience from the outside, or perhaps even bring an old face back. Jonny Bairstow, perhaps? Ollie Pope? Probably not a great idea.

And so it’s Root. Because it has to be. This is a consequence of the scorched earth left by Brendon McCullum and Stokes’ tenure. The team is in such a state of flux that Root is the only adult left standing; the only player guaranteed his place in the team who can command the respect of the others.

You can link this back to McCullum and Stokes’ policy of extreme loyalty to some players, which actually turned out to be counter-productive. By sticking with Zak Crawley — and, to a lesser extent, Pope — for much longer than their form justified, they ensured that, when they eventually were left with no alternative but to drop them, they were effectively unselectable for some time afterwards.

Had either been left out earlier, perhaps they might have been able to recover their game in domestic cricket, and come back. Crawley might not have been a realistic captain, but Pope could have been.

Reappointing Root is also a significant risk in terms of his batting form. In this time of flux, England can’t afford not to have their greatest ever batter at the top of his game. Root is 1,808 runs away from surpassing Sachin Tendulkar at the top of the all-time Test run-scoring list. With a fair wind and no other distractions, he probably would have got there in about 18 months’ time. You can probably file ‘being forced to captain England again’ under ‘distractions’.

History tells us that Root is not as good a batter when he is captain. His average is a shade under four runs worse when leading the team. That might not sound like a huge difference, but it’s enough to worry. If Root having to be captain again takes anything away from his batting, then it will be a disaster, brought to you by the people who also prematurely retired James Anderson.

If they manage to scupper the end of their greatest batter’s career, as well as that of their greatest ever bowler, it will be unforgivable. Still, at least Rob Key has kept his job. Something to cling to.

Was James Anderson prematurely retired? (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

There is also the issue of whether Root is a particularly good captain. His record in his 65 Tests reads: won 27, lost 27 and drawn 11. He is the only England captain to take charge of more than 20 matches and not have a winning record since Michael Atherton, who oversaw the dog days of the 1990s.

On the positive side, perhaps Root will have come up with new ways to cope with the pressure in the last four years. “I am a very different player and have a different way of looking at the game than the last time I captained, in a good way,” he said after taking the job for a single Test in the middle of the New Zealand series.

It should be said that a lot of the pressure he spoke about was related to Covid-19, England having to play in various ‘bubbles’ and the attendant stresses, which obviously will not be a factor this time.

He may also be able to cope by compartmentalising the whole thing: it’s only another year. Only another 13 Tests (albeit a lot of hard ones). He won’t have to do it beyond September 2027. A definitive end date may alleviate the pressure he felt when doing it before.

Joe Root initially bought into ‘Bazball’ tactics (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

He is a more mature player now, someone who might take the edge off the more extreme and self-destructive elements of ‘Bazball’. He was an enthusiastic disciple of the approach, but that was more to do with him being the ultimate team player and setting an example to the rest. Unlike some other batters, he has the ability to play a different way.

The best case scenario here is that Root brings the positive elements of Bazball but with a bit more responsibility, if that is possible.

Also, a speculative point: Stokes’ retirement was fairly abrupt, and he has gone back on decisions like this before, having retired from one-day internationals in 2022 before returning the following year. At the back of your mind, throughout the whole process of him stepping down, there was a voice whispering: ‘This guy will be back for the Ashes’. Will one of his closest friends in cricket being captain encourage that? Is that even a good thing?

Either way, this is not where England should have been. Circumstances may have dictated this, but they came about because of the decisions made by those who are, and were, in charge. If it doesn’t work, it will be unforgivable.