Ben Stokes on Joe Root resuming England captaincy ‘My only worry is Joe’

Ben Stokes has outlined his worry to Joe Root that the England Test captaincy may end up grating him in the way it did when he gave up the role in 2022, as well as expressing confusion as to why vice-captain Harry Brook was not promoted to the job.

Speaking on the latest episode of the For The Love Of Cricket podcast with Jos Buttler and Stuart Broad, Stokes, who retired as Test captain at the end of the New Zealand series, revealed he had spoken to Root following his reappointment last week. In that conversation, he articulated his hope Root does not return to the dark days of the end of his first term in the post.

Root stepped down from the role four years ago citing a “very unhealthy relationship” with captaincy, exacerbated by operating under Covid-19 restrictions for his final two years. Those struggles underpinned Stokes’ early success as captain upon taking over from his close friend, looking to alleviate the pressure on both Root and a team stifled by taxing biosecure environments.

The decision to hand Root the captaincy once more was made, in part, by newly hired Test head coach Stephen Fleming after Brendon McCullum was stood down – a decision Stokes believes might not have been made had he not retired.

Having worked with Fleming at the IPL, both at Chennai Super Kings and Rising Pune Supergiant, Stokes believes the 53-year-old will be the ideal foil for Root, but feared the latter’s selfless traits might be to his detriment once more.

“I love Rooty, I wish him nothing but success,” Stokes said. “I hope he goes on and achieves amazing things in his role as captain. I think he’s going to really enjoy Flem, he’s a great man. I’ve worked with Flem before.

“But I told Joe, my only worry is you. And that’s all I really care about now with Rooty, just because I’ve seen what he went through and how much he put himself through. For someone, he just always puts the team first and he always comes second. That’s my only concern with it, knowing what he went through last time he was in charge of the team. Because I don’t want to see that ever happen again because I care for Joe a lot.”

Brook, having been appointed as vice-captain from the Ashes onwards, was not given the job, having also been overlooked earlier this summer when Stokes was unavailable selection for the second New Zealand Test following his ill-fated night out post-Lord’s.

That decision was partly based on the fact Brook had his own recent brush with off-field problems after being struck by a bouncer in Wellington last October, the night before a match. Speaking last week, managing director Rob Key stated the ECB felt it was “too soon” to hand Brook the keys to the Test side. Stokes, however, disagrees.

“If you think someone’s going to be a good captain or a good leader, then just give it to them even if… Brooky, made vice captain, I’m not there anymore, but even when I missed that test match, I was like, ‘Why is Brooky not [leading]… like, he’s vice captain?!’ I understood the reasoning why they were saying it, but I was still like, ‘Well, what message is that sending to him? He’s vice captain and then the captain is not playing, but he’s not captain.’ And then the same again here [with the full-time job].

“What message has that sent? Brooky will… just go out there and bat. He’ll just be like, ‘It’s fine, whatever’. Because he just loves batting, he loves scoring runs, he loves playing cricket. Again, I don’t know. I had no leadership or captaincy experience when I took over.”

Stokes also pushed back when Broad asked if the team had a drinking problem, off the back of Brook’s incident in New Zealand that bled into an Ashes that England ended up losing 4-1. A mid-series break to Noosa was seen as unprofessional – Australia were 2-0 up at the time – a sentiment ramped up when a video emerged of Ben Duckett intoxicated and unable to find his way back to the team hotel.

Stokes was particularly strident on English cricket’s relationship with alcohol from the bottom up, stating it was not the case that the team has a drinking culture, but the sport itself.

“God, that’s such an extreme thing to put on a team. I think cricket has just a drinking culture and it hasn’t changed. We’re in… 2026 where the game has gone more professional over the years. And one thing that I think has just stayed within cricket is its relationship with alcohol, from club cricket and then works its way up. It’s just stayed there and it’s been embedded within the sport.

“The relationship with alcohol and cricket is just something that hasn’t moved on as the game of cricket has become more professional. There’s been more science and medicine, there’s more nutritional information, there’s more this, there’s more that. But the one thing that has been a constant and stayed around and has been for a very long time is its relationship with alcohol.

“So for people who think that the English cricket team has a drinking culture, I’d say no. I would just say cricket has culture that is associated with alcohol.

“I think it can be a problem. If you look at everything over the years, you look at a lot of people that have been involved within cricket and have had bad relationships with alcohol. It’s just, I don’t know what you do to change it.

“I’ve had… I don’t want to say problems, but I’ve had relationships with alcohol at times over my career that have been potentially dangerous, if that makes sense. But it’s completely different to me now. But yeah, I just think that there’s this relationship with alcohol within cricket that has been the same from the ’80s. As the game has got better and better and better, that thing has just stayed around. That’s my opinion on cricket and alcohol.”

Stokes also disclosed his desire to coach England in the future. He has been doing his ECB Level Three coaching badge course over the last 18 months, which is continuing alongside playing commitments with Durham.

“I want to be a coach. I know what I want to do within staying in the game, which is to be a coach. Would I love to be coach of England one day? Absolutely, I’d love to do that. Do I think it’s going to happen? I don’t know. No idea.”

As for reversing his Test retirement, Stokes reiterated his stance that any U-turn, even a return for next summer’s Ashes, is out of the question.

Having originally earmarked the 2027 series with Australia as his end point, a spate of injuries which saw him miss the final Tests of his last three series (the Ashes, India at home, New Zealand away), and the tax of being an England cricketer for the last 15 years brought retirement forward by 12 months.

“I spoke to Clare [Stokes’ wife] a lot about this even before I took the decision. We were sort of, ‘oh, you always plan your retirement. You always go, okay, boom, boom, boom’. And it was the 2027 Ashes. Whatever happens there, you’re going, [but] not sure I can go past that. And then over time, it was, ‘How am I going to get there? How am I going to get to Australia 2027 with how everything is feeling at the moment?’

“Even New Zealand, [while] playing for Durham… I’m like, ‘I’m going to get to the end of the New Zealand series… How am I going to get to Pakistan? Jesus, I’m worried about how I’m going to get there.’ And I’m thinking that Australia’s going to be my last one?

“I’m 35. If I’m not going to be captain, I think I’d find it tough to do it. Not saying because I find it tough to be led by someone else. I just think because I’ve given so much of this part of my career to that job that it’s like, if I’m going to play for England, it’s going to be as captain. And yeah, I was very comfortable retiring from playing and not thinking about playing for England just as captain.”

Vithushan Ehantharajah is an associate editor at Cricinfo

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