There are routine hospital passes — and then there is the challenge facing Joe Root this week as England’s Test side attempts to steady itself after another spell of needless self-inflicted turmoil.
What should have been a straightforward follow-up to England’s encouraging work at Lord’s in the second Test against New Zealand has turned into something far more complicated. The chaos of the Ashes tour was meant to be fading into the distance, little more than an unpleasant memory in the rear-view mirror.
Instead, on the eve of a match that has suddenly taken on far greater significance than anyone would have predicted 10 days earlier, Root was fielding questions not just about cricket, but about England’s drinking culture and a bowling attack as inexperienced as the Oval surface was green.
Having acknowledged that he was part of the group that spent an evening in west London after the Lord’s victory — before making it back to the team hotel ahead of the midnight curfew — Root was then asked whether he had any sense that Ben Stokes was about to veer off course.
His answer captured the strange reality he has re-entered, more than four years after leaving the role of England’s longest-serving Test captain. “I want to talk more about what is going on this week and what a great opportunity we have ahead of us.” Easier said than done, Joe.
England are lucky to have Joe Root. He has slipped seamlessly into the role of the ideal former captain: undemanding, dependable, a source of support when needed, and still driven enough — and talented enough — to keep producing centuries. When he said he had been “slightly envious of the opportunity to work with someone like Baz (Brendon McCullum) in this sort of capacity”, it almost sounded as though he felt the need to apologise for the indulgence.
Root has been a model ex-captain, low-maintenance, a shoulder to cry on, and still hungry and able enough to keep churning out the hundreds
England did not want to expose the official vice-captain Harry Brook (right) to questions about drinking less than eight months after his skirmish with a nightclub bouncer in Wellington
But he also spoke for many when he said he had only ever given himself a ‘0.1 per cent’ chance of doing the job again. In reality, that percentage was higher, since England did not want to expose the official vice-captain Harry Brook to questions about drinking less than eight months after his skirmish with a nightclub bouncer in Wellington.
The truth is, well, sobering: having moved on from Root in 2022 because the team needed to rediscover their joie de vivre, England have now returned to him, navy blue cap in hand, because he’s the only adult left in the building.
Remarkably, he is also the only player left from McCullum’s first Test in charge, against New Zealand at Lord’s in 2022. He is both a reminder of the past and, apparently, the best hope for the short-term future.
Could he see himself doing the job beyond this series? ‘Let’s worry about this week, right?’
And, for all the positive spin about the benefits of fresh blood, there may be a fair bit to worry about. Root will start the game with more Test caps (164) than the rest of the team put together (138), while six of his colleagues have won 10 or fewer.
Jordan Cox and Sonny Baker will be playing their first Tests, Emilio Gay and Matthew Fisher their second. It’s a rebuild all right, but not of the type England envisaged when they prepared for this series.
Then there’s Root himself, who since returning to the ranks has been a cricketer reborn, hitting 16 Test hundreds at a rate of one every five and a quarter innings, averaging nearly 55, and consigning to the past the solitary win in his final 17 Tests as captain in a Covid-hit world.
‘We played around 20 Test matches in those Covid environments and watched the rest of the world go back to normality around you,’ he said. ‘Over time that took its toll on the group, but also myself. I ended up being so consumed with everything I wasn’t the person I wanted to be, and it was the right time to step away.
‘It was a great opportunity for a fresh start for English cricket and was absolutely the right decision. Those four years have been the most exciting, fun part of my career.’
The fun, he believes, will inform how he leads the team now, though Root is too authentic to wear any kind of mask.
Root will start the game with more Test caps (164) than the rest of the team put together (138), with Jordan Cox (pictured) set to make his England debut alongside Sonny Cox
‘I’ll be myself,’ he said. ‘I’m not going to try and be someone I’m not. I’ll be as genuine as I can be. I think I’m a very different player and have a different way of looking at the game than probably the last time I captained – in a good way.’
The problems he must now deal with are different too, for Root’s role as England try to win this series will be as a father figure as much as a captain. Even when he answered a question about the drinking culture by insisting ‘we’re a very professional team’, the sense was of a veteran protecting his young charges from the baying mob.
When managing director Rob Key announced Root’s temporary return to the top job, he said: ‘When English cricket’s in a hole, Joe Root’s the man we ask to dig us out of it, whether that’s on the field or off the field.’
Root responded: ‘I think that’s slightly dramatic. As a player, you want to stand up in big moments, and you want to deliver when your team needs you, and I guess that’s part and parcel of being part of something bigger than yourself. You do what’s in the best interest of the team.’
After four years of successful reinvention, Root must now – at the age of 35 – reinvent himself again. English cricket needs him more than ever.
Root coy on Stokes conversations in wake of assuming captaincy
By Richard Gibson
Joe Root had to fish his old captain’s blazer out of the garage, dust it down and try it on for size after agreeing to take charge of England once again.
‘It was in a cupboard in the garage. It was a bit creased when I got it down and had about 30 team sheets in the pocket I had to take out. I had to check that it still fit, actually,’ Root said.
Asked at the pre-match press conference what chance he would have given a 65th appearance in the role occurring, he replied: ‘I never thought I’d be sat here talking to you guys as a captain again.’
But he steps in for close friend Ben Stokes, to whom he’s spoken on numerous occasions since the 115-run win over the New Zealanders at Lord’s was followed by a breaking of a team curfew and an incident at a Chelsea nightclub.
Root has spoken to Stokes on a number of occasions since the 115-run win over New Zealand at Lord’s was followed by a breaking of a team curfew and an incident at a Chelsea nightclub
Their bond is sufficiently strong for Stokes to have sought the Yorkshireman’s blessing in accepting the captaincy in 2022, but Root refused to divulge what had been said between them in ‘privileged conversations’ or whether there had been a reciprocation ahead of the baton being passed the other way.
Ironically, New Zealand captain Tom Latham has known Stokes – not considered for this match alongside Surrey seamer Gus Atkinson while investigations into their conduct post-Lord’s are ongoing – for almost as long as Root, having been in Durham’s academy aged 18 back in 2010.
‘Anytime something like this happens, I guess the welfare of a player is first and foremost and I’ve certainly seen that the England side have been checking on him to check that he’s all good. At the end of the day, he’s a human being and it’s important if (someone’s) going through a tough time,’ Latham said.
On Monday, England coach Brendon McCullum revealed his concern for Stokes’ state of mind.
Meanwhile, Latham paid tribute to Kane Williamson, the man who followed McCullum as captain of the Black Caps and retired last week as his country’s all-time leading run scorer.
‘He’s lived by the values of this team for such a long time and he will leave a legacy for years to come,’ said Latham, who confirmed Henry Nicholls will take Williamson’s place at No 3.
