Joe Root - will captaincy ruin him?

[vim_fuego]

From the first time I saw him take guard in India for England at 21 I have liked Joe Root. Nothing seemed to faze him. Since then he has consistently provided a service in all three areas of the game and become a game-changer for Cook who has brought him along as a work in progress.

I have reservations about him becoming Captain though. I have never rated fast-track schemes in sport or the work place...people can have the most astounding ability and the biggest brains on the planet but I find they lack the mental fortitude and resilience borne from an extended period in roles building up to the big job.

Root is young. He also looks young. The 'slating' he was getting before was child's play compared to what he'll get now. Before, when things went wrong, Cook fronted the team and soaked up the ire of the worlds press and disgruntled England suporters...Is Root strong enough for that?

I hope so but I fear not...I think this timing sucks and it's about 2-3 years premature.

 

[Gonterseed]

I can't help feeling the same Vim.

I suppose we have to recognise that the position of captain has changed a hell of a lot over the years.

These days the international changing room is more and more integrated to the back-room and that seems to be place full of advisers in the guise of "coaches" - in politics they'd be called spin doctors, briefs and speech writers.

Now it would appear that their skills as captain are becoming more aligned to how closely they follow the said back-room.

 

[Tin basher]

It maybe a little early in England terms, we haven't a great history of chosing young captains but Graeme Smith captained S. Africa at the age of 22 and he did OK. If Root drops to 4 in the batting order then he should have enough time to get his head ready for batting after all the planning, thinking, organising and responsibility that goes with being fielding Captain is over. No sure about his tactical accumen as I haven't seen enough to form a view. I hope he lasts for years and scores bucket loads of runs but there is only one path for the England captain the press will love him, praise him, judge him, criticise him and eventually hound him out of office. He will end up as all others have done as the Ex-England captain.

 

[Barch]

Cook - my hero, the first Yorkshire born English captain to tour Australia.

 

[Tin basher]

Cook - my hero, the first Yorkshire born English captain to tour Australia.

Yet he never played a game DT_Xtremez_14:

 

[muttywhitedog]

Thought it a good time to bring this up. It seems Root is the only player capable of scoring runs in test matches. The rest seem to have fallen victim to the woke culture, where they are not allowed to hurt the opposition, or even dislike them. Note the batsman in 3rd place for England this year!

 

[4mastacker]

The England openers seemed to be mimicing the BBC with their repeat performances.

 

[Tin basher]

We are struggling for openers. Burns has more moving parts than a Swiss watch, Crawley has one huge score to his name and Hameed seems gritty enough but, for me, lacks the x factor of a test player. The easy thing is to say get rid them the hard thing is who to replace them with, we could be forced to admit they aren't great but are ,currently, the best options we have. Ollie Pope hasn't shown me anything to get excited about. Big changes are coming soon to the England test set up. Root, Bairstow, Buttler, Stokes, Burns, Woakes, Wood, Broad, Malan and Anderson all 10 of them have 30 in the rear view mirror.