Joe Root’s reappointment as Test captain is an opportunity for England’s greatest batter to script a golden closing chapter for his career. But it also leaves the door open for Ben Stokes to write his own post-script.
Stokes has only himself to blame for England fans’ lack of belief that the final day at Trent Bridge really was the end. He abruptly announced his retirement from the ODI format in the summer of 2022, before changing his mind 12 months later. That decision came weeks after he coaxed Moeen Ali out of Test retirement to play in the 2023 Ashes. It’s no wonder that fans and pundits around the world have speculated over whether he might return to England colours from the moment he gave them up.
There are some notable differences this time around. When Stokes announced his ODI retirement, he blamed the schedule, rather than running out of fight. Four years ago, his powers with the bat were closer to his peak, even if his 50-over form had been dwindling for some time. When the 2023 World Cup rolled around, England were trying to get the 2019 band back together, having failed to cultivate a viable alternative in the previous four years, in the hope that it would be alright on the night. He went out in such a furious blaze at Trent Bridge, that it made clear the finality of his intent.
However, Root’s appointment changes the landscape like no other appointment would have.
After his last stint as captain ended, few would have predicted a return to the role for Root. His captaincy had stagnated, while consecutive Ashes drubbings in Australia made a continuation of his tenure untenable. After the first Test he played under Stokes, Root acknowledged how drained those final few months left him. “It had started to take a bad toll on my own personal health,” he said. “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 either.”
Stokes’ quotes after stepping down were similar to those sentiments, and ultimately the same as many England captains who have lost the belief. “Only people close to those people [captains] can really see it,” said Stokes at Trent Bridge. “It does drain you, it does affect you in a negative way.”
While on the same day Stokes also rebuffed any suggestion that he could return for the 2027 Ashes by saying he would “probably be watching in a hospitality box,” time and circumstance could change that.
Root has a monumental in-tray to get through in the 11 months before the Ashes. The most urgent of those tasks is how to replace Stokes’ role in the side. Each time Stokes has been absent through injury or his own withdrawal during his career, England have been unbalanced and short in one department. Since the beginning of 2015, they’ve managed to win 11 of the 29 Tests Stokes hasn’t featured in. It’s not hard to see a scenario where Root, and Fleming when he takes up his post, won’t be able to find a solution in the eight Test matches before the Ashes rolls around.
If Stokes has regained a level of form in franchise and domestic cricket having cleared his head, would he answer the same kind of SOS message he once sent?
The only man he would likely consider entertaining the possibility for would be Root. The two have been through their careers largely side-by-side, stretching back well before their England days. While they’ve lent on each other at different times, with Stokes providing support in the dying months of Root’s captaincy, it’s largely been Root who has bailed Stokes out in troubled times. The latest incident of that was when Stokes felt it necessary to apologise for putting Root back under the captain’s cosh at The Oval.
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In the years where Stokes was at the peak of his powers under Root’s captaincy, Root only briefly got the best of him. He was taken out of the Ashes series in 2017 after the incident in Bristol, leaving Root again fudging together a balanced XI, and it took time after returning from his mental health break in 2021 to fully regain himself. If Root is looking to rewrite his own captaincy story, Stokes was a central character to its original plot.
Equally, Root would likely be able to manage the fever a Stokes return would create in a way that Harry Brook may have found more of a challenge. Brook’s entire Test career has been played under Stokes’, and there’s been a sense of moulding himself in Stokes’ image, playing on their natural similarities. Root is his own man, and unlike Brook, doesn’t signal an entirely new page being turned.
A Stokes return would be complicated. It would require a truce between him and the ECB authority figures who, in his eyes, ultimately fuelled his retirement in the first place. Retirement U-turns also rarely come good, as Stokes himself found in the 2023 World Cup. But Root’s appointment ultimately keeps that door ajar for an Ashes return. As Rob Key said today: “It would be a brilliant story if he does.”
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