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“If I'm being brutally honest he was a big reason...” Joe Root on his return as England captain
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed on Thursday that Joe Root will succeed Ben Stokes as Test captain following Stokes' retirement from the format. At the same time, former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming has been appointed as England's new Test head coach, replacing Brendon McCullum.
Four years after relinquishing the role, Root has returned to lead the side, and he believes the appointment of Stephen Fleming as head coach played a significant part in his decision.
“We've spoken briefly and if I'm being brutally honest he was a big reason why I wanted to do it. I'm very excited by the way he sees the game, where he sees us sit as a team and the work we have to do to get to where we want to get to. All of that got me very excited about taking this role on. Very much looking forward to working with him and he's obviously got a wealth of experience, done some amazing things in the game as a player and as a coach. I'm looking forward to the next little while and us trying to build something pretty special together,” Root said. In an interview with the ECB.
England adopted a fearless brand of cricket under the leadership of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, however it lost the spark before McCullum's exit and Stokes' departure. But Root remains committed to the Bazball mindset.
“Since 2022 we've done some amazing things. We'll try to continue a lot of the good stuff we did over that period and not finding ourselves back to where we were before Baz [Brendon McCullum] and Ben [Stokes] took over, and evolving and tweaking things to where we want to be and really competing against the top nations consistently for a long period of time,” Root said.
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