Joe Root reveals his plan for England's Test match approach going forward
ENGLAND captain Joe Root says he does not want to “completely rip everything up” from the Bazball era after becoming Test captain for the second time in his career.
The 35-year-old took the role on again earlier this week replacing Ben Stokes, who stepped down in June as England slid to a series defeat against New Zealand.
Root, who steps in to a familiar role and has a wealth of experience after captaining England for 65 Tests between 2017 and 2022, is planning to tweak the approach of Stokes and Brendon McCullum rather than start from scratch.
In an interview with ECB, he said: “It’ll be trying to continue some of the good things we have done over that period (since 2022) and not finding ourselves back to where we were before Baz and Ben took over.
“Evolving and tweaking things to get us to where we want to be and really competing against the top nations consistently over a long period of time.
“The wrong thing to do would be to completely rip everything up that we’ve done over the last four years.
“There’s so much good stuff that Ben and Brendon did and changed the way we look at the game and see the game.
“I’ve benefitted hugely from that as a player so to think we have to start all over again would be wrong. But there are areas we want to sharpen up a little bit and become a little bit sterner with.
“The last four years is the most fun I’ve had in cricket and most of that is down to the way they got me to see the game.
“Clearly the last little while is fresh in everyone’s minds but you’re looking at a four-year period where we did a lot of good things.”
Root was announced as Test captain on Thursday when Stephen Fleming was named as England new Test head coach following McCullum’s dismissal from the red ball role.
Sheffield-born Root says that Fleming’s appointment was a big reason why he took up the Test captaincy for a second time.
He added: “If I’m being brutally honest, he was a big reason why I wanted to do it.
“I’m very excited by the way he sees the game and where he sees us sit as a team and the work we have to do to get where we want to get to.
"I’m very much looking forward to working with him and looking forward to us building something special together.”
Fleming will not be in charge for the upcoming Test series against Pakistan – Marcus Trescothick will be interim head coach when it gets underway at Headingley on August 19. Fleming is due to arrive in the UK later in the summer to begin preparations for England’s winter tour to South Africa.
Root lost 27 of his 65 Tests and had a win percentage of 41.53 per cent in his first spell as Test captain and stepped down when he felt things got too much for him.
But he now says he is feeling re-energised ahead of his second stint in charge.
He said: “Anyone that says – in an eight-year period – that they are the same person, they are probably lying.
“Clearly we could’ve been better and performed better but it came to a point where that got a little bit too much for me and it was time to step away.
“The world’s very different. I’m in a different place and feel very energised and excited about the opportunity that lies ahead.”
Root’s Yorkshire team-mate Harry Brook was the only other viable candidate for the Test role and said in June it would be a “great honour” to assume the Test mantle, while Stokes even endorsed his deputy at his farewell media conference after losing the three-match Test series to New Zealand at Trent Bridge.
However, Brook already has a massive workload captaining the two white-ball teams teams and recently relinquished the captaincy of SunRisers Leeds in The Hundred because of his existing England responsibilities.
The ECB will no doubt also have been keen to avoid doing anything to disrupt the progress of the limited-overs sides under the Yorkshireman, even though managing director of men’s cricket Rob Key said last week that Brook’s workload was not a consideration in him being overlooked for the Test role.
Brook led England to the T20 World Cup semi-final earlier this year, while a 4-0 win over India saw them leapfrog the world champions to the top of the rankings in the sprint format.
They also appear to be on an upward curve in the ODIs, moving up to seventh in the rankings after defeating India 2-1.
But asked about Brook’s Test captaincy credentials, Key said: “He’s still developing as a player and as a person, to be honest.
“At some stage, Harry Brook will be an outstanding Test captain of England cricket. I just didn’t feel the time was right now.”
“I also think it’s tough to do all three (captaincy jobs), but that didn’t really come into it.”