Steve James: England captaincy would mean more to loyal Ben Stokes than he lets on

Stokes and Root are very close. Root staunchly stood by his friend in those troubled times for the all-rounder in 2017 and that is something that has never been forgotten. Loyalty is one of Stokes’s strongest attributes.

It is why he has always previously been at pains not to articulate any captaincy aspirations.

As he said in Sydney in January: “A captain is someone you play for. Joe Root is someone I always want to play for. I’ve said I’ve never really had an ambition to be a captain. That’s totally Joe’s decision. He shouldn’t be forced into doing it. I’m sure Cooky [Alastair Cook] felt the same way. When he knew his time was up, his time was up. Those discussions haven’t even entered anywhere near Joe yet.”

But they clearly did so after Root returned from the Caribbean and now Stokes is the only credible alternative. Stuart Broad might be another possibility, but he is not even in the side at the moment, and there are obvious drawbacks for a fast bowler assuming such responsibility, even if there are also clear reasons for not giving an all-rounder with much on his plate (including a niggling knee problem) the captaincy.

The cases of Andrew Flintoff and Ian Botham loom large in this respect, with captaincy proving as poor a fit as a cheap suit for them, although another superb all-rounder, Tony Greig, did find it a much more comfortable piece of clothing to wear. Jonny Bairstow? Moeen Ali out of Test retirement? Rory Burns, Sam Billings or James Vince out of nowhere? You can see where this is heading.

Stokes is a leader and always has been. His work ethic both on and off the field is extraordinary; he drags others along with him in a relentless quest to better himself.

It should be remembered that, when in late 2016 there was some conjecture about Cook standing down and, alongside the obvious successor in Root, the head coach Trevor Bayliss mentioned Stokes’s name – to some mirth, it has to be said – Bayliss then had to say: “No, mate, I’m serious.”

As Bayliss told The Guardian in 2020: “Stokesy is like Eoin Morgan in that he’s a leader of men and when he talks, everyone listens.

“The standing that other players hold him in, that’s half the battle. Whether you make the right or wrong decision, if your players believe in you and have confidence in you – which I’m pretty sure they have – they’ll follow.”

Jos Buttler, destined to take over as white-ball captain from Morgan, could be another left-field option, and it should be noted that Rob Key, who looks likely to become the new managing director of England cricket, said recently on Sky Sports: “The best captain in that entire set-up or the person who’s the most likely candidate or would be the best captain, in my opinion, is Jos Buttler. But the problem with that is that he doesn’t get in the team at the moment.”

It is interesting to recall the events of 2019 when Buttler was still Test vice-captain after Stokes had been stripped of the role after the incident outside a Bristol nightclub in 2017.

Sitting in his garage at home one day, Stokes decided that he needed to let it be known that he wanted to be Root’s deputy once more. He sent a text to Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive. “Of the punishments I’d received in the aftermath of the Bristol incident, losing the Test vice-captaincy was what hurt the most,” Stokes wrote in his book, On Fire.

“So I decided I would take the plunge. Forty-eight hours later, I had Ashley Giles, the England managing director, in contact to offer me the position once more. My reaction to being told that I had been reinstated was no more than ‘Cool’. But it meant the world to me. Believe me.”

You suspect that it will mean the world to him if he receives a call from the new England managing director offering him the main position in the coming weeks. He clearly, and rightly so, sees himself above Buttler in the pecking order and is a lot keener on leadership than he has let on.

There is a lot to deal with in terms of media duties and other off-field responsibilities as an England captain, and it will be fascinating to see how Stokes might manage them alongside his bowling load (getting the ball out of his hand once the emotions are rising has proved tricky) and how he might bat (in my opinion he has too often veered too much towards caution in recent times). But it is never likely to be too dull.

In an interview in these pages in 2019 Mike Atherton asked Stokes how he thought he might cope as captain and whether the burden could be too much for him. “You can’t really answer that until you’re exposed to it,” he replied.

It looks as if we will discover that answer very soon now.

– The Times

Originally published as Steve James: England captaincy would mean more to loyal Ben Stokes than he lets on