Root & Branch?

The dominant view appears to be that Joe Root should give up the captaincy but I do not share this.

It should wait for a new Director of Cricket (yet to be appointed) and Head Coach (yet to be appointed) and Chairman of the ESB (yet to be appointed).

There is talk of Ed Smith coming back after he was sacked by Ashley Giles (now gone) from his post as Chairman of Selectors, or possibly James Taylor.

Sounds like a mess. It is.

Oddly enough Root’s captaincy – inept as it is – has not affected his form and England are desperately short of runs.

Ben Stokes is the obvious candidate but the track record of all rounder skippers is not compelling: Ian Botham and Freddie Flintoff were poor.

There was an inconsequential discussion about all this on Radio 5 Live with the prodigal son Michael Vaughan returning to the airwaves, that “Jack The Lad” Phil Tufnell, Jimmy Anderson and Carlos Braithwaite.

The latter does not use 10 words when 100 will do and in his verbosity advocated Justin Langer, citing Jason Gillespie at Sussex as understanding the culture.

I know of no Sussex CCC supporter who would agree as Gillespie’s two year tenure was marked by a losing semi final in the T20 and feeble performances in the Royal London and Championship.

For me, the cricketer with the best skill-set to be captain is Eoin Morgan.

He is his own man and can exercise authority in the face of too many coaches and an obtrusive media.

However he has not played a Test for 10 years and the transition in English cricket from white to red ball has never been successful – think Alex Hales, Jason Roy and Jos Buttler.

Some promote Stuart Broad but – if Jofra Archer, Olly Stone and Mark Wood are fit- is he worth his place?

One of the more outlandish candidates is Sam Billings, who is not even a regular now that Ben Foakes has been rightly restored.

Oh for Graeme Smith who captained South Africa from the age of 22.