For all the bold talk when the Yorkshireman was appointed, the squad for his first game as England captain against South Africa hints at a pragmatic approachNow for something completely different: white kit, red ball and a week in the same hotel. It is finally Test match time. The first one against South Africa starts at Lord’s on Thursday and then there will be six more this summer inside eight weeks. Related: Gary Ballance recalled to England Test team against South Africa Related: Joe Root can bring aggression to England captaincy in new big-hitting era | Vic Marks Related: Joe Root was not always earmarked for England captaincy but rarely shirks a test | The Spin Continue reading...
For the former captain, this has been a rare golden summer and he may just be ripe for a Gooch-like late career surge as the South Africa Test series loomsComfort often arrives in unexpected places. The last two years of Alastair Cook’s time as England captain were fretful at times, marked by scratchiness, defeats and some elbow-gnawing press conferences, an understandable sense of basic human metal fatigue at the prospect of being forced to communicate yet again in a series of terse, angsty soundbites in front of a board covered with adverts.Cook is a good man and a wonderful cricketer but his manner has perhaps chimed with something a little alienating, a sense that here is a child entirely of...
Joe Root will have some input for the first Test with South Africa but the new captain will not be the only one finding it hard to name an able-bodied pacemanA captain is seldom more powerful in selection than before his first Test in charge. On Saturday morning Joe Root’s squad for the opening Test against South Africa, which starts at Lord’s on Thursday, will be revealed and it will surely have the imprint of the new leader. Related: Live cricket returns to BBC as part of deal for new Twenty20 tournament Continue reading...