England’s new Test captain Joe Root will not put an end to the aggressive Bazball approach of former leader Ben Stokes as he starts his second stint as the leader of the team in red-ball cricket. Root was given the captain’s armband following Stokes’ retirement from international cricket midway through the third Test against New Zealand at home. The 35-year-old Root had previously led England between 2017 and 2022 and took the captaincy on an interim basis when regular leader Stokes was excluded for the second Test against the Kiwis.
The right-handed batter will bring in a few changes without completely getting rid of the tactics of Stokes and Brendon McCullum, who parted ways with the national team after the New Zealand series.
Root will lead England in the three-Test series against Pakistan. While Stephen Fleming has replaced McCullum, he will not be available for the bilateral assignment against the sub-continent nation.
“I will continue with some of the good things we have done over the past few years instead of going back to the era before Baz and Ben took over the reins of the team,” Root said in an ECB interview on Saturday.
“It is important to evolve and tweak things to improve as a team and continue competing against the top countries consistently. It would be wrong to completely get rid of everything that we have done in the last four years,” he added.
“Ben and Brendon did good stuff and changed the way we played and look at the game in Test cricket,” he mentioned.
McCullum inspired the English team to play fearlessly, but the approach flopped against Australia and India. England failed to win a Test series against the two top countries in the McCullum-Stokes era.
The ENG vs NZ Test series was impacted by the off-field controversies, with Stokes and Gus Atkinson breaking the team curfew after visiting a nightclub, following the home team’s win in the series opener.
Root will act strictly to stop the unwanted incidents. “We will not start from scratch, but there are areas that need improvement. We have to become sterner. The last four years have been amazing, and it was because of the way they made me see the game. Some of the recent happenings are still fresh in everyone’s minds, but when we talk about four years, there are other good things to look at as well.”