Joe Root and England brace themselves for their latest brave new era

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So, do England have a new captain or will it be the same Joe Root? The one who won more Tests than any man to have led England in his first spell in charge, but also lost more than anyone else?

Will England’s greatest Test batter be a more imaginative, proactive captain when he leads his side out against Pakistan on Wednesday, or the same uninspiring leader who won one of his last 17 Tests in charge before Ben Stokes took over in 2022, charged with revitalising the side?

These are the questions hanging over Root and England at Headingley as they start all over again six weeks after Stokes’ own stint as captain came to as surreal and bonkers an end as anything their traditionally mercurial opponents Pakistan can ever have mustered.

Few captains have been handed a second chance to do things differently, as Root has now by England in the absence of any feasible alternative candidate — other than a white-ball captain in Harry Brook just too busy and perhaps too immature to do the job yet.

The issue now is whether Root can grasp that opportunity and arrest the decline of an England side who saw Stokes retire mid-match in the last Test against New Zealand, then sacked their coach, Brendon McCullum, on the back of seven defeats in their last 10 Tests. In that context, they cannot afford to slip up against Pakistan.

Joe Root is starting his second stint as England captain (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

The good news for England is that Root does look genuinely enthused and energised by his return to a job he suggested was bad for his health towards the end of his first spell in charge. He does not appear to be reluctantly stepping in now simply out of a sense of duty.

“The landscape’s very different and I’m a very different player and person than when I first took over as captain,” Root told reporters at his home ground on Tuesday. “I’m in a very fortunate and unique position where I’ve got 60-odd games to look back on as captain, and there are things I might want to change and do slightly differently.

“I’ve had time to step away, play in a different environment with a different coach and captain, and see the game through a different lens. Now I can think about the best way to take this team forward.

“In many ways I feel as ready as any England captain there’s ever been, and to have that amount of experience is invaluable. It’s a completely different set of circumstances now and I’m very much looking forward to it.”

It is worth remembering the difficult hand Root was dealt when he took over from Alastair Cook early in 2017. He has talked about the unique challenges presented by being in charge of England during the Covid-19 pandemic, but that was only half the story.

Root would never say anything negative about his good friend Stokes, but there is no question the former captain’s arrest in Bristol — he was subsequently found not guilty of affray — and resultant absence from the Ashes in Australia in 2017-18 cast a long shadow over England and their then fledgling captain.

Then Root faced the unprecedented situation of England prioritising white-ball cricket in the build-up to the 2019 World Cup, a tournament won by a team overseen by Eoin Morgan, while the Test side had to settle for second best. By the time Covid had left Root’s captaincy all but broken, it was no real surprise he refused even to attempt chasing a target of 273 runs in 73 overs set by New Zealand at Lord’s in 2021.

He jumped a year later just before he was pushed.

Root was again dealt a bad hand when he had to step in for the second Test against New Zealand at the Oval earlier this summer after another drinking incident involving Stokes led to him becoming the first England captain effectively suspended for a match.

Even so, there were slightly worrying signs that Root still does not have the instinctive feel for leadership that came so naturally to Stokes. Not least when he gave Jofra Archer a demanding eight-over spell on the first evening and then ignored his spearhead the next morning when England were desperate for wickets.

Root may have been acting on medical advice with Archer playing his first red-ball game after returning from the Indian Premier League (IPL), but it did conjure memories of the captain’s mishandling of his most explosive fast bowler when he burst onto the scene in 2019, not least when Archer bowled 42 overs in an innings against New Zealand in Mount Maunganui that winter.

Archer has been quietly having a very impressive summer for England. He was named their player of the series against New Zealand and then thrived in the white-ball matches against India. How Root handles him now will be integral to England’s chances in three Tests they really should win against a Pakistan side without a series victory in England in 30 years.

Joe Root will have to deal differently with Jofra Archer this time round (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

Pakistan’s status as firm underdogs was increased with the news that captain Babar Azam has failed to recover from the finger injury suffered in the Caribbean earlier this year and exacerbated in their warm-up game at Beckenham last week.

In the absence of the biggest star in Pakistan cricket, the T20 captain Salman Agha will take over. At least coach Sarfaraz Ahmed said at Headingley on Tuesday that there was no break to Babar’s finger and he is hopeful of being fit for the second Test at Lord’s next week.

Pakistan have arrived in England on the back of a credible 1-1 draw against West Indies and England cannot underestimate an attack led by the highly experienced figure of Mohammed Abbas, who has almost 1,000 first-class wickets to his name.

Abbas is a far cry from the great Pakistan fast bowlers like Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar, but he operates in the late 70mph mark that, with the keeper standing up, has proved such a problem in recent times for England. Not least for Root who, with Tom Blundell invariably hovering just behind him, averaged just 28 in the 2-1 defeat by New Zealand. He must now prove that the captaincy will not be a further hindrance to his batting.

Mohammad Abbas will pose a threat to England’s batters (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

Root, who averages 46 as captain as opposed to 53 without it, needs a further 1,808 runs to overtake Sachin Tendulkar and become the most prolific run scorer in Test history.

“I have 160 Test matches’ worth of experience and an understanding of my game,” Root added at Headingley. “The first year of my last tenure as captain was probably the best I’ve ever batted and I found a really good way of combining the captaincy with my batting then. I look at the game very differently now and I’ve no concerns over that being an issue.”

Root, who said he has been speaking to new coach-in-waiting Stephen Fleming “almost every day” in the build-up to this series, plans to field at mid-off rather than in the slips where he will be able to communicate with an attack led by Archer.

Whether Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson join him despite playing in the final of the Hundred only on Sunday remains to be seen with England deciding to wait until the toss on Wednesday before naming their side. It is almost as if they are heading back to the pre-central contract days when they had no real control over their players — at least for the three and a half weeks in August when the Hundred holds sway.

But Root cannot have asked for better opponents for his second coming and it would be a huge surprise if England do not win this series comfortably.

Then perhaps they can start planning in earnest for one last crack at the Ashes next year for their born-again captain.