Joe Root has pledged not to abandon the attacking philosophy that defined English Test cricket over the past four years after being handed the captaincy for a second time this week.
The 35-year-old Yorkshireman succeeds Ben Stokes, who stepped down in June following a series loss to New Zealand, and brings 65 Tests of leadership experience from his previous tenure between 2017 and 2022.
Rather than overhauling the blueprint established by Stokes and Brendon McCullum, Root intends to refine it.
Speaking to the ECB, he said: “The wrong thing to do would be to completely rip everything up that we’ve done over the last four years.”
Joe Root has been named England captain for the second time of his career
|
GETTY
His focus, he explained, would be on “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.”
Root was keen to stress the wealth of positive contributions made during the Stokes-McCullum partnership. “There’s so much good stuff that Ben and Brendon did and changed the way we look at the game and see the game,” he said.
On a personal level, the veteran batter credited the era with reinvigorating his own cricket.
“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,” he added.
Yet he acknowledged that refinements are necessary.
“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.”
Joe Root has replaced Ben Stokes as Test captain after his retirement
|
GETTY
While conceding that recent results remain “fresh in everyone’s minds,” Root urged perspective, pointing to a broader four-year stretch during which England “did a lot of good things.”
Root also addressed concerns that returning to the captaincy could diminish his output with the bat. During his first spell as skipper, his average dipped by nearly seven runs compared to his career mark of 53.34 without the armband.
However, he insisted he is a fundamentally changed cricketer and individual.
“[I’m] hugely different, anyone that says in an eight-year period they were the same person they were [at the start] is probably lying,” he said.
The experiences accumulated both on and off the pitch, he argued, have reshaped his outlook.
“I think that will be very similar in how I want to take this team forward,” Root added, suggesting his evolved perspective will directly inform his leadership approach this time around.
