After only three Tests, we know what sort of selector Ed Smith is. He disdains convention, favours youth, doesn’t mind a bits-and-pieces player. His style is two-thirds pragmatism, one‑third audacity.
After 17 Tests, we still don’t know what sort of captain Joe Root is. We have a sense, from his years in the ranks, of his character – smiley, cheeky, easy-going yet steely. But, as a general, he has no stamp. He is neither attacking nor defensive, neither a grandmaster nor a barnstormer. He is not a minor deity like Virat Kohli, nor a man with a plan like Eoin Morgan. He inherited some strong personalities – the metronomic miser Jimmy Anderson, the simmering showman Ben Stokes – and seems content to let them set different tones at different times.
At Lord’s on Thursday, Root has a golden opportunity. England are 1-0 up when they could easily have been 1-0 down. The third Test is at Trent Bridge, where the ball swings even more than at Edgbaston, so England should win that one. If Root goes for the jugular at Lord’s, this series could be like one of those dismal Ashes winters from the Waugh‑Warne era, all over in 12 days flat.
It would be better for the game if England lost at Lord’s, to reflect the riveting equality of Edgbaston. It would also be true to form under Root. All three of his home series so far have found their way to 1-1 after two Tests, a curious fact that may shed a light on his leadership. Captaincy is a mosaic of a million decisions, large and small. Nobody gets them all right, but Root seems to get half of them wrong.
At Edgbaston he stayed calm, or looked it, which was no mean feat. He won the fourth day with three decisions – to keep Kohli off strike (for 46 balls out of 63), to bring on Stokes first change (Kohli fell to his third ball), and to shelve Sam Curran after one over in favour of Adil Rashid, who saw off Ishant Sharma. “Joe Root used us all very intelligently,” said Stuart Broad afterwards, with the air of the headmaster praising the under-11s.
All was well that ended well. But Root was also making choices that had the former captains in the commentary boxes tearing out what’s left of their hair. He opted to field at mid-off, where he had a fine view of Dawid Malan, his replacement at second slip, shelling three catches out of six. He saw Kohli, and his disciples, counter the swing by standing well outside the crease, and did nothing to stop them, whereas when Australia’s Brad Haddin used the same ploy at Trent Bridge in 2013 Matt Prior stood up to the stumps. Many of India’s runs went to third man, yet Root left that door open, even when the tailenders came in, bearing edges.
Kohli set some puzzling fields too, letting Jonny Bairstow get away with a few wafts through the vacant third slip. But he was bold in his use of Ravi Ashwin, who came on so early that he was able to eat Alastair Cook for breakfast. If India had picked a second spinner, they would surely have won.
Matthew Engel, writing here in the 1980s, once said that new England selectors were given simple instructions. “Pass the port to the left and, if in doubt, drop Randall.” Root’s style of captaincy seems to be: have a kickabout beforehand and, if in doubt, bowl Anderson.
England’s oldest player is also their hardest-working, getting through 631 overs under Root and taking a heroic 77 wickets at 19. England are thinking of rotating their bowlers because this series is so compressed – yet, on Friday, Root gave Anderson 15 of the first 31 overs. Maybe it was rotation of a sort, with Broad being selected and rested at the same time.
To be fair, the system hardly prepared Root for the top job. He had seldom led Yorkshire and had played all his Tests under Cook, a limited role model. He has never captained his country in white-ball cricket, unlike Kohli, who also learned from the crafty MS Dhoni.
Root does not look a natural leader, and it shows in his batting record. His average, as captain, in the first innings of a Test is 58. When England bat second, that figure plummets to 38. England’s best batsman for decades becomes merely competent, weary after making all those decisions.
Captaincy isn’t all calculation, of course. It is also emotional intelligence, which Root is good at. On Saturday, he hugged all his players with a warmth you would not have seen from Ray Illingworth. Afterwards he singled out Curran, England’s cherub with chutzpah. This may only become Root’s team when the three old stagers bow out, and he can be a boyish father-figure to the Currans, Ollie Pope, Joe Clarke and Jofra Archer. To reach that point he needs to be more consistent now, and more commanding.
