It’s one of the great tropes of modern American literature that a central protagonist often finds their day-to-day struggles front and center against the larger societal malaise. Whatever minor acts of heroism and failure these characters are responsible for, they are picayune concerns over the bigger picture, the state of the nation. Never mind the plot details, what does it all say about we?
For much of the past five years, it has felt like that was Joe Root’s fate as England Test captain. If its only compelling goal was an Ashes series victory that never materialized, the overarching narrative was one of an empire in decline, a system fallen into disrepair. Root could move up or down the batting order, publicly berate his bowlers for not being fuller, attempt to restart, reload and reset – but his efforts always seemed destined to be subsumed by the wider psychodrama swirling around the English game .
He rose to captain, essentially, from a shortlist of one: following the resignation of Alastair Cook, Root was the obvious candidate, the team’s top hitter nearing the top of his game. career. He leaves with no obvious successor, still the team’s best batsman and – after the
great Root run-glut of 2021 – still clearly at its peak. No one knows where the test team goes from here, not least because there is currently no one in a position of power (last person to leave the ECB please turn off the lights?) .
Nonetheless, Root’s mark on the captaincy remains substantial. He is both the biggest winner and the biggest loser of the English Test leaders (although in an age of fewer draws that may not tell us as much as it should). After surpassing Michael Vaughan’s mark of 26 Test wins with a win over India at Headingley last year, a winter of discontent in Australia and the Caribbean has seen him eclipse Cook’s records, for matches in charge and defeats, with remorseless inevitability.
It’s so indelibly linked to Sisyphus’ task of trying to get England’s testing standards back to where they were a decade ago – virtually when his international career began, in fact – that Root sweeps at roughly the accolades chart: most runs as England captain, most one hundred and fifty, most catches. (He’s co-eighth in wickets taken, and might have been able to reach third if he had another year to go. Tempting.)
More importantly, only two captains in Test history have recorded more defeats than Root’s 26: Graeme Smith, with 29 of 109 Tests (compared to Root’s 64); and Stephen Fleming, with 27 out of 80 (and a hell of a lack of resources at his disposal).
It wasn’t quite a one-man show, of course, and Root-era subplots encompass all the big names. Cook helped hold the bat together for a time, before giving way to a rotating cast of candidates as the fly-half. Ben Stokes played the most consistent Test cricket of his career under Root, his efforts at Headingley, Cape Town and Colombo helping to turn base metal into gold; but he missed the 2017-18 Ashes while under investigation for a brawl, and was powerless to avoid another 4-0 scoreline in Australia this time around, having just returned from a break forced for injury – both physical and mental.
Root’s pastoral strengths as a leader were never more evident than when he spoke after Stokes pulled out of the Test squad on the eve of last summer’s series against India. “From my point of view, I just want my friend to be okay,” he said simply. Stokes has always been loyal to his mate as captain, saying he had little interest in the role; he seems likely to be offered it regardless, as the only man alongside Root guaranteed to be on the roster.
More complex was Root’s relationship with his bowlers. The management of Jofra Archer, who netted 44 overs on his Lord’s debut in 2019, and another 42 in a single run at Mount Maunganui later that year, will forever remain a black mark. Root admitted he needed to learn how to use Archer better, but he barely had the chance before a chronic elbow injury starved England of his services – possibly forever, in testing. And if overuse was the problem with Archer, then Jack Leach became a forgotten man for long periods of the captain-coach combination of Root and Chris Silverwood.
Then there’s the dual case of England’s lawn bowling totems, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, and how best to deal with them (or move on). Root’s contributions were praised in the early days, with his efforts to pitch a fuller, more attacking length looking well received; Broad, in particular, has never been more menacing than David Warner’s eviscerating summer of 2019. The Caribbean – where Anderson and Broad were conspicuous by their absence – was interpreted accordingly.
The fact that the two posted messages of support on social media shortly after Root’s decision to step down again underscores how he was seen in the locker room, even when discontent abounded. “Most Test wins as England captain and a wonderful human being,” Broad wrote.
It also says a lot that the nickname Root was given to Yorkshire – ‘craptain’, following a County Championship defeat at Lord’s in which Middlesex chased 472 in the fourth inning – never stuck at bay with the ‘England. Times were rarely as golden as seemed possible when he scored a sun-dappled 190 in his first test on his way to a 3-1 series win over South Africa, but he There have been notable successes along the way – victories in Sri Lanka. (twice) and South Africa, as well as a 4-1 loss to India in 2018, when England were fleeting, vibrant, greater than the sum of their parts.
Although the coat
caused a significant drop in his overall batting average – from 52.80 without the captaincy to 46.44 with – that burden seemed to lighten even in adversity, his record further bolstered with each of the six masterful hundreds he landed last year (plus two more since January). The absence of a century of testing in Australia, where he became the first man to lead two failed Ashes tours in more than a century, will perhaps be the most painful – although that, along with his mediocre record at the No. 3, something root can still hope to raise the bar.
Above all, England could be grateful that Root, a man of the utmost decency, was there during the most difficult times – there to guide the Test team through the demands of Covid, there to cope after each new meltdown. at bat, there to have the flaws of England’s red-ball system pinned to him like a scarlet letter. Five run without a win over the last year – the worst run in England’s history – suggests it was the right time to go, but he didn’t do it without a fight.
Because there’s heroism in taking on the lead role in a production that’s doomed to fail. At the end of last month’s Grenada Test, Root didn’t look so much like a fictional character as the one portrayed in Theodore Roosevelt’s “man in the arena” speech, “whose face is scarred with dust, sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who fails again and again”. Whether it’s a big hit or a bold failure, the credit goes to Root. He is no longer a hostage to the fortunes of England.
