England are in search of a new Test match captain after Ben Stokes' shock retirement at Trent Bridge – three Wisden writers deliver their verdicts on who should wear the armband.
Phil Walker
Wisden Cricket Monthly editor in chief
Harry Brook
From 38 matches Brook averages 53 with 10 tons and 18 fifties. Of all England players in our lifetime only Joe Root can touch those numbers. Not bad for a joke.
Off the field, he's an uncomplicated soul from a different world to that of most of his predecessors. He's not Sir Andrew. He’s not Sir Alastair. He got too drunk in Christchurch one night, and carried on like a fool. It’s possible that drink is not his friend. Beyond that, he seems alright to me.
He’s kicking around his prime, with the interesting chance of more to come. He’s captained England at all levels. He’s the vice captain, and as Stokes said - even if he was being a little pointed to his now former employers - you don't ask someone to do it if you don't think they've got the skills and the ability. Stokes will also know that many roguish cricketers have gone OK with a little extra responsibility.
So I'd give it to him, take the T20 stuff off his hands, and give Jacob Bethell that gig. Bethell would have two-plus years to learn the ropes ahead of the 2028 T20 World Cup. Brook would have 10 Tests before the Ashes to get used to the Test job, and 18 more months as 50-over captain before the World Cup next winter. He’s shown bits as a tactician, and at times, under pressure, batted superbly while wearing the armband.
Bethell is a risk. All of it is. But at least you can guarantee that he’ll be good enough to make England’s best white-ball XI. And by this time next year (if he stays fit) he’ll have played over 100 times for England.
Root is the only other option but he came to hate the job when he did it, has a poor record doing it (Covid asterisk notwithstanding) and may not be quite the player he once was, which considering he's 35 is totally understandable. Making Joe do it would be a retrograde move that smacks of convenience. The whole thing calls for vision, ambition, and the showing of a little shaky faith.
Ben Gardner
Wisden.com managing editor
Harry Brook
It has to be Harry Brook, with the only issue that it can’t possibly be him. There are echoes to the debate around when Ben Stokes took on the job, when he was the only plausible candidate, but there were fears over overburdening a pyrotechnic superstar struggling through a patch of poor form. Then, as now, the potential upside often went unremarked-upon.
What if this is the making of Brook? OK, the responsibility of the ODI captaincy wasn’t enough to stop him going out on the piss the night before his last hit before the Ashes. But with a different coach, one who actually writes down and seems like he believes in the rules, could the top job instill that little bit of focus that could turn Brook from one of the most talented players of his generation into one of England’s greatest ever?
Root would be a step backwards. Brook would be a step into who knows where. It feels worth finding out where that might lead.
Katya Witney
Wisden staff writer
Joe Root
It does indeed have to be Harry Brook, but I can't quite shake an impending feeling of doom when saying it. To not give the captaincy to the vice-captain is a symptom of a management structure in crisis, unsure of where it's front foot is landing. Nevertheless, it was better that for The Oval Test than front Brook up to the media to weather a storm he had some part in making back in New Zealand.
If the downsides then were big enough to not give it to him, logic says they still could be. Yes, the situation is slightly different, and Brook has shown natural leadership qualities in his 18 months as white-ball captain, and has established a good working relationship with Brendon McCullum. But captains must be set up to succeed. Handing him the armband now, with the side at their lowest point, an Ashes 12 months away, while Brook himself is struggling to arrest a batting slump feels like a lack of care for England's next superstar. That Brook is vice-captain, yet there are still questions over whether it should be him is enough to mean it shouldn't be him.
The only other candidate is Joe Root. Several things can be true at once. Root has a poor captaincy record, hated the job by the end and is in the last stage of his career. Giving him the captaincy would be a step backward. In the situation England are in, maddeningly that doesn't disqualify him from being the preferential candidate. Perhaps a short stint to allow the dust to settle, a transition period before the coronation, if you will, could be the way forward.
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