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Joe Root has acknowledged England have “let ourselves down” with some “disappointing” behaviour in recent months. These culminated in the episode in a Chelsea nightclub last week that has forced Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson out of the second Test against New Zealand and prompted Root to resume the captaincy on what he described as a “game-by-game basis”.
Stokes and Atkinson have been sidelined after breaking the team’s midnight curfew while celebrating England’s victory in the opening game at Lord’s. As a result Root has returned for a 65th Test as captain – with more perhaps to follow – more than four years after he stepped down from a role with which he said at the time he had developed “a very unhealthy relationship” that “started to take a bad toll on my own personal health”.
Root was also involved in the post-Lord’s celebrations, but left in time to meet the curfew imposed on the squad after a winter marked by a series of embarrassing incidents involving discipline and alcohol. “From a personal point of view, it has been disappointing,” he said. “There has been a few occasions as a team we’ve let ourselves down, and we’ve let each other down.
“We have to learn from those mistakes and make sure we understand we shouldn’t be putting ourselves in those situations. I don’t think it’s a fair reflection of our dressing room. It’s an incredibly professional dressing room that works extremely hard, that turns up and puts everything into each and every training day.
“In terms of being able to celebrate wins,absolutely you should be able to do it, but doing it at the right time is very important, understanding that and making sure we don’t find ourselves in situations like this. These things should never happen, but we are where we are. We’ve got to learn from it and move forward.”
Despite his previous experience in the job, Root said he was “really excited” to captain the team at the Oval this week and to work in the role alongside Brendon McCullum. He notably refused to rule out leading the side on a permanent basis should Stokes be unable or unwilling to do so.
“I am a very different player and have a different way of looking at the game than the last time I captained, in a good way,” he said. “It is going to be cool to experience the captaincy side with Baz and with this coaching group. I have never had more fun and got more out of a group of coaches than this one.”
Root has dusted down his old captain’s blazer – “It was in a cupboard in the garage. It was a bit creased when I got it down” – with McCullum key to his decision to wear it once again. “I have really enjoyed the last couple of days, working with Baz in a slightly different space,” he said.
“In a small way – in a good way – I was slightly envious of that opportunity, to work with someone like Baz in this sort of capacity. It has been really cool, the last couple of days. It’s a very different look to even the team we had [at Lord’s] but it is very exciting to get to lead those guys out.”
