Ben Stokes has questioned the decision not to appoint Harry Brook as his successor.
Speaking on For The Love Of Cricket podcast, Stokes gave his first in-depth interview on his retirement since his dramatic final game for England last month. During the episode, he outlined his thoughts on the decision to reappoint Joe Root as England Test captain over vice-captain Harry Brook.
Brook leads England in both white-ball formats as well as being Test vice-captain, but was overlooked to stand in for Stokes when he missed The Oval Test match against New Zealand last month. Root stood in for Stokes on that ocassion, and was appointed as his full-time successor last week. Stokes backed Brook to take on the role after his retirement at Trent Bridge.
"Brooky was made vice-captain, I'm not there anymore but even when I missed that [Oval] Test match I was like, 'he's vice-captain'," said Stokes. "I understood the reasoning why they were saying it, but what message is that sending to him. He's vice-captain, and the captain is not playing, but he's not captain and then the same again here."
Speaking last week, England managing director Rob Key said that it was 'too soon' for Brook to take on the Test captaincy. "At some stage, Harry Brook will be an outstanding Test captain of England cricket," said Key. "It just doesn't feel like the time was right now."
Stokes: Harry Brook should be averaging 70 in Test cricket
Brook led England to white-ball series victories over India last month, during which England became the No.1 ranked T20I side in the world. He has come under criticism over the last 12 months in Test cricket for some of his dismissals and shot selection, but still scored three half-centuries against New Zealand this summer.
"I've said this to Brooky, I said it to him at Sydney," said Stokes. "'You're averaging 55 and it feels daft having this conversation, but that's how good you are, you should average 65, 70 in Test cricket. It's understanding why teams are doing what they're trying to do to you in that moment, and identifying those moments that if they're bowling to you and you're 40 not out, and they've been trying to bowl pretty normally and then they start going to something different, they've got no idea how to get you out, absolutely no idea.
"So they're going to change to bouncers for example. So if you do that for a bit, what are they going to do? They're going to go back to doing that [bowling normally]. Identify those moments in the games, because that's what's going to take you from where you are now, which is unbelievable, to being even better than other people, because he can do things that no one else can do."
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