Joe Root’s England Captaincy Reset: Why It Turned ‘Unhealthy,’ What Ben Stokes Taught Him and the Big Calls Ahead

Joe Root admitted yesterday that he is stepping back into “a difficult but hugely rewarding job” after being reappointed England Test captain.

The years since he walked away from the role appear to have worked their own kind of cure. When Root resigned four years ago, he described his relationship with the England captaincy as “unhealthy” and said the responsibility had become a “big weight” on his shoulders. Now, somehow, the tide that has flowed since then seems to have brought a measure of healing.

So what has really changed for Root? The clearest answer is the atmosphere around England’s Test team. During the final 17 matches of his record 64-Test spell as captain between 2017 and 2022, cricket had lost much of its joy for the Yorkshire batter and those around him, with the squad shuttling from one sterile Covid hotel to the next. The arrival of Bazball helped Root rediscover the fun in the game.

When he succeeded Alastair Cook nine years ago, Root effectively emerged from a shortlist of one. There was a strong sense then, and throughout much of his tenure, that he was the only realistic candidate to lead England in Test cricket.

Yet all along, England had a bolder, more instinctive and occasionally maverick option in Ben Stokes. It was Stokes who later changed the mood, showing Root that leadership did not have to mean carrying every burden alone, and that mistakes did not need to become permanent scars. That is why people close to Root and within the England set-up believe this second version of his captaincy will look and feel different.    

There were certainly plenty of errors near the end of Root’s first spell in charge. A rotation policy, introduced with good intentions to protect leading players from burnout, was badly handled and often left England with the wrong selections for the wrong conditions. The most glaring example came at the Gabba in 2021, when Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad were left out of the first Ashes Test before England chose to bat first. 

Public criticism of those two senior bowlers’ lengths in Adelaide and their subsequence axing by Andrew Strauss for Root’s last-chance saloon in the Caribbean all contributed to the disharmony. Root’s tactical decisions also left him open to criticism, such as bowling Jofra Archer for 42 overs in a single innings in Mount Maunganui in New Zealand in 2019.

Such was his longevity that he is simultaneously England’s best and worst captain statistically: winning 27 and losing 27. New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming, the man he has been asked to form a new captain-coach alliance with, also lost 27 times while only South Africa’s Graeme Smith, with 29 from 109, has been defeated more.

It must be said that there were times, such as the victory over India in Chennai in February 2021, their sixth in a row away from home, when it appeared Root’s team were on to something, but either side of that, the elusive success over Australia all England captains crave failed to materialise.

A caveat to that is that he didn’t have Stokes at all for the 2017-18 tour Down Under while England’s now ex-captain wasn’t at his best after physical and mental impairments in the build-up to 2021-22.

And covering for Stokes’ absence now is going to be the primary issue Root has to manage, initially working with the interim coach Marcus Trescothick for the upcoming series against Pakistan from August 19, with Fleming, England’s second choice to replace Brendon McCullum after Andy Flower, granted a delayed start date to spend time with family back in New Zealand.

Root arguably showed his cards by playing an extra batsman and doing away with frontline spinner Shoaib Bashir when standing in for an unselected Stokes at The Oval last month.

Whether he can do that in August when pitches are at their driest, and likely to offer turn, remains to be seen. Selection for Headingley will also perhaps give an indication on the future of Bashir, whose cause was trumpeted so loudly by Stokes and McCullum from a stage in his career when he had 10 first-class wickets at an average in excess of 70.   

No doubt wanting to get off to a good start with victory over Pakistan, Root might not be prepared to indulge this particular ECB development project at this stage.

At The Oval, he threw the ball to slow left-armer Jacob Bethell and filled in some spin overs himself.

Root smiled his way through those difficult circumstances, but he will be judged through a different prism now the selection calls will be his, made in conjunction with national selector Marcus North.

Sam Curran, a player who has served Root well in Tests before and Fleming is very familiar with from their time together at Chennai Super Kings, could come into the mix for the No 7 position along with George Hill – Root’s Yorkshire team-mate.

The ECB went for Root to avoid over-burdening another Yorkshireman in Harry Brook – England’s biggest match-winner – during a 12-month period which culminates with the 2027 Ashes. This despite Brook maintaining his personal form in leading England temporarily to the top of the Twenty20 rankings this month and resuscitating their 50-over form with series wins over Sri Lanka and India. Mark Butcher led the criticism from former England players yesterday, calling it a ‘retrograde step’.   

However, with the Root-Stokes axis now a thing of the past, a triumvirate of Root, Brook and Bethell has developed inside the dressing room, and it would be no surprise if one of the other two takes over the Test armband once next summer’s Australia series is out the way.

No one quite knows where the team goes from here, but in a re-energised Root, the ECB are hoping they have left it in safe hands.