Root's great challenge to finish captaincy story

Of all the places for England to begin a new era, Headingley is the most difficult to shake off the memory of Ben Stokes.

In the city of Stokes' greatest miracle, the home side must plot a future without a captain, all-rounder and talisman, starting against Pakistan on Wednesday.

Yet, for all Stokes' legendary achievements it cannot be said his four-year spell as England captain ended with the team in a better state than he found it.

Stokes inherited a team that had won only one in 17 and exited with two wins in 10. New, old skipper Joe Root might wonder about the chaos his old mucker has left behind.

England have sacked Brendon McCullum as Test coach and replaced him with Stephen Fleming, only Fleming is not yet in post, meaning Marcus Trescothick is interim boss, all while McCullum remains floating around as white-ball gaffer.

It leaves this three-match series against Pakistan with a feeling of impermanence, not unlike Root's last tour as captain in the West Indies in 2022. England lost 1-0 with Paul Collingwood as temporary coach and Root resigned as captain soon after.

Root was left broken by his first, five-year, stint in the top job. There was a time when he would not have considered returning as skipper. Still, here he is on his home ground, ready to go again, smiling, excited and energised by his comeback.

Plenty will wonder why he wants to put himself through it all once more. Well, consider what it must be like to give up the England captaincy, to admit you can no longer do a dream job.

Root will have regrets from his first attempt, and maybe a sense of unresolved business. How irresistible it must be to get a second chance that very few are afforded.

If we thought Stokes' destiny was to end with an Ashes win next summer, then the all-rounder was unable to finish his story. Now Root has the opportunity to finish his.

The Yorkshireman has acknowledged one challenge of this captaincy is how some may view his first reign. Root was regularly self-deprecating about his own leadership during Stokes' tenure.

Yes, there was the one win in 17 to end it all, but before that, Root's record was pretty good: 26 wins from his first 47 matches in charge gave a success rate of 55%. As a comparison, Stokes won 54% of his Tests as skipper, Michael Vaughan 51% and Mike Brearley 58%.

Covid destroyed Root's team, and there are other reasons why Root might also feel he didn't get a fair shake first time around. His tenure as captain coincided with a prioritisation of white-ball cricket and, when he stood in for Stokes against New Zealand in June, he admitted to some envy at not getting the chance to work alongside McCullum.

Not that everything went against Root. One could argue that, given the players at his disposal, he should have had a better record as captain.

Peak Stokes, England's two greatest bowlers in James Anderson and Stuart Broad, plus the luxury of further all-rounders Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali. Root did not get to lead the best version of Alastair Cook, but the late-career Sir Chef would improve the current England team.

Root may feel he is better placed to captain England now, yet he is taking over if not a worse, then certainly a much more inexperienced team. Perhaps he will find this group easier to mould in his image. In his first Test as captain, in 2017, Root was the third-youngest player in the XI. In 2026, at the age of 35, he is comfortably the oldest.

For plenty of supporters the main worry will be the possibility of a detrimental effect the captaincy could have on Root's batting, and it is true that his average with the armband - 46.7 - is some way off a lofty 53.3 without.

That discrepancy is mainly because of a poor run in the middle of his first stint as skipper. Root averaged 37 in 2019, the year before things started going wrong for England during Covid.

In 2021, mid-pandemic and with the team falling apart, Root racked up 1,708 runs - the most by any England batter in a calendar year. He later explained that batting, being in the middle, was the only time he got any peace.

Root remains England's best player. Since the beginning of the Bazball era, he has scored almost 1,000 more Test runs than any other batter in the world. In the same period, he has moved second on the all-time list of run-scorers, with Sachin Tendulkar now in his sights.

Catchin' Sachin is the sub-plot to Root's second stint as captain, and he is adamant he can juggle the jobs of leadership and run-scoring.