Joe Root wasn't as bad a captain as you remember

When he passed the armband to Stokes, he looked like a broken man. Dogged by the statistic of having won just one game in his last 17 Tests at the helm, he’d been deadened by an Ashes drubbing under restrictive Covid restrictions, and the preceding two years of bio-bubble isolation. After his first Test having given up the job, he revealed how much it had taken from him in the end.

“It had become an unhealthy relationship, the captaincy and me,” he said. “It had started to take a bad toll on my own personal health. I couldn’t leave it at the ground anymore, it was coming home, it was not fair on my family, people close to me, or myself. As soon as I made the decision [to step down] I knew it was the right thing to do. I felt like a big weight had been lifted.”

Yet now, the memory of that pain has faded far enough into the background for him to shoulder that weight again. For Root, the potential rewards of exposing himself to the possibility of that misery again must be a driving factor. Having never won an Ashes series as captain, he has the chance for another stab next year. The largely directionless group of mostly young players currently in England’s Test set-up are more ripe for moulding a side in his own image than the likes of Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Alastair Cook were. And perhaps, with the Covid pandemic now fading into the background, the level of burnout Root suffered at the end of his last captaincy stint is less of a risk this time.

As well, with enough distance from the miserable end of Root’s captaincy, there’s room for a more objective reflection on Root’s captaincy era.

Root’s raw captaincy numbers aren’t astounding, but they also aren’t awful. He won 27 out of the 65 Tests he presided over – more than any other England Test captain – and lost exactly the same number. His record in Ashes Tests is particularly egregious. England won only two of Root’s 15 Ashes Tests in charge, one (Headingley, 2019) was a one-off heist and the second came after Australia had already retained the urn. On the flip side, ten of those 15 are made up of two tours to Australia, where almost all England captains struggle, and England's focus in 2019 was on ODIs rather than winning the Ashes.

Away from the numbers, as his tenure wore on, Root’s captaincy seemed methodical, predictable and lacking in the kind of vision Ben Stokes injected at the start of his tenure. Part of that philosophy’s attraction was its contrast from what came before. Flare, aggression and risk vs the staleness of Root’s final year.

Nevertheless, both in numbers and on the field, the impact of Covid on Root’s captaincy cannot be overstated. By the start of 2021, encompassing his pre-Covid captaincy period, Root had captained England in 44 Tests, the same number as Stokes did during his full tenure. Root won 23 of those Tests compared to Stokes’ 24, but with a better win/loss ratio. While there were significant lows in those years, including away defeats to Australia, New Zealand and West Indies, England in some aspects became a side who brought through multi-faceted cricketers, in contrast to the image of Root's tenure as years of attritional, defensive cricket. They peaked with a 4-1 win over India and a 3-0 win in Sri Lanka with a side stuffed full of all-rounders.

A regeneration at the end of 2019, when Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope became key members of the batting line-up, initially bore results with that more attritional style, including a heady 3-1 victory in South Africa. Three wins to kickstart 2021 suggested a team building up to something. And then it all fell apart.

It's worth noting that from 2021 onwards, Root seldom had his best team available – a factor when England’s focus was on winning the World Cup before 2019, but one that became far more significant with Covid restrictions in place. Players were rested during the winter India series in 2021, while a significant chunk missed the following New Zealand series which clashed with the IPL. Shortly after that series, Stokes announced his break from cricket for mental health reasons, and when he came back for the winter’s Ashes, he was still on his way back to full force.

We’ll never know how Root’s captaincy period would be looked at had the pandemic not hit, but the change in the Covid era was clear. England won just four out of the 21 Tests they played under Root from the start of 2021, lost 12 and drew five. The low-point of the 2021/22 Ashes tour made his future as captain untenable, even if he did continue for one final overseas disaster in the West Indies.

It was impossible to believe Root would ever take, or be offered, the captain’s armband after he let it go. The methods for success Stokes implemented and his galvanising nature were the antithesis of how Root is now viewed as a captain. Root’s tenure ended in an understated character worn down by the responsibility, while Stokes’ cult of personality highlighted how timid the end had been. For a long time, it was enough to make a reversion to Root unthinkable. But the chaotic end of Stokes’ captaincy has left room for reflection, not least from Root himself.

When he led England out as interim captain at The Oval last month, he admitted he was “slightly envious” of Stokes getting to captain under McCullum. Stokes was given cards that Root never was, and even without that hand, Root was able to notch up genuine successes in the first part of his tenure. Those successes were eclipsed by the misery which followed them, and then by the excitement of Stokes’ revolution. Root won’t get to work with McCullum, but he will get another go to change the one dimensional memories of his captaincy.

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