Joe Root: England to name batsman Test captain, succeeding Alastair Cook
Joe Root will be named as England’s new Test captain later on Monday.
The Yorkshire batsman, 26, succeeds Alastair Cook, who resigned after more than four years in charge last week.
England do not play their next Test match until meeting South Africa at Lord’s in July, when Root will become the 80th man to lead the country in the longest form of the game.
No batsman has scored more than Root’s 4,594 runs since he made his Test debut in December 2012.
In the same time period, only India captain Virat Kohli has scored more runs than Root in all forms of international cricket.
An announcement from the England and Wales Cricket Board is expected on Monday to confirm Root has stepped up from vice-captain, a position he has held since 2015.Before the tour of India at the end of last year, the 32-year-old opener said he was looking forward to not being captain.
As England moved towards a 4-0 series defeat, Cook increased speculation over his future by saying he was questioning his position.
After he resigned, he confirmed he would like to continue at the top of the order, with England director of cricket Andrew Strauss leading the process to appoint a successor.
Root, all-rounder Ben Stokes, pace bowler Stuart Broad and one-day vice-captain Jos Buttler were all consulted.
But Root was always seen as the clear favourite and was offered the job over the weekend.
With England concentrating on limited-overs cricket for the first part of 2017, Root will not properly pick up the reins for almost five months,
However, after the visits of South Africa and West Indies, he will lead England to Australia for the defence of the Ashes.
Root takes the job with very little captaincy experience – he has only ever skippered in four first-class matches.
However, he likened taking over as leader to becoming a father, a baby son having arrived in January.
“Being a dad, you don’t really know what to do until you have to go with it,” he told the BBC before Cook’s resignation.
“I imagine being captain would be very similar. Until you’re in that position I don’t think you know.
“I’ve got quite a lot experience in Test cricket now, but it’s one of these things you have to learn on the job.”
Courtesy : BBC
