England lost the Ashes, the coach and the captain, and have handed the Test side back to Joe Root

Joe Root walks out at Headingley on Wednesday as England’s Test captain, a job he gave up in April 2022 and has been handed back for reasons nobody at the ECB enjoys listing. The Ashes were lost 4-1. New Zealand then won a series in England after going a Test down. Brendon McCullum was removed from the Test job, Ben Stokes retired from international cricket in the middle of the deciding match, and the captaincy has gone back to the man who was carrying it when the whole Bazball project started.

How England got here

The New Zealand series in June finished it. England won the first Test at Lord’s by 115 runs, lost the second at the Oval by 253 and the third at Trent Bridge by 160, and New Zealand became the first side to come from behind and win a three-Test series in England. It was England’s first home defeat in a series of three Tests or more since 2012.

Stokes announced his retirement on day four at Trent Bridge, while he was in the middle of a spell, ending 15 years as an England cricketer and four as Test captain. McCullum went a fortnight later, on 12 July, though only from the red-ball job. He is still England’s white-ball head coach, which is a strange arrangement to explain and stranger still to live with.

Stephen Fleming has signed as the next Test coach on a deal running to September 2030, and he does not start until the South Africa tour in December. Marcus Trescothick takes the side against Pakistan in the meantime. England therefore begin whatever comes after Bazball with an interim coach and a returning captain, which is less a plan than a holding pattern.

Why Root and not Brook

Harry Brook already captains England in white-ball cricket and is Root’s Test vice-captain, and the case for giving him all three formats was largely that he was standing right there. Rob Key did not buy it. “It’s just too soon for Harry Brook,” the ECB’s managing director said. “This feels the right time for Joe Root.”

Root’s first stint reads worse than it deserves to. He captained England in 64 Tests, more than anyone else has, and won 27, which is also an England record. He lost 26. England won one of the last 17 under him, a run that ended with a 10-wicket defeat in Grenada in March 2022, and he stepped down a few days after getting home.

This is not quite a first day back. Root captained the Oval Test in June with Stokes unavailable, and England were beaten by 253 runs. What is different on Wednesday is that the job is his properly, rather than for one match.

Headingley, of all places

He is 35 and batting as well as he ever has. He went past 14,000 Test runs at the Oval in June, the second man to reach it after Sachin Tendulkar, whose 15,921 is now the only total in front of him. And the ground is his: Root scored his maiden Test hundred at Headingley in 2013, against New Zealand, the first Yorkshire batter to make a first Test century on his own turf. If a returning captain gets to choose where the second stint starts, this is the choice.

The squad, and a hole at No. 3

England named their squad for the first two Tests on 6 August. Jacob Bethell is injured and out, which leaves No. 3 vacant, and national selector Marcus North has already said Jordan Cox will get the chance there. Dan Lawrence is back for the first time since September 2024 after 788 County Championship runs at 65.66. Ollie Pope and Brydon Carse also return.

Pakistan land in better condition than anyone expected. Babar Azam is captain again, a second stint after nearly three years out of the role, and Pakistan beat West Indies away this month for their first away Test win in three years. Abdullah Shafique made a century in that win and Babar an unbeaten 86, and Shafique has been added to the Pakistan squad in place of Abdullah Fazal, who has a back injury. Salman Ali Agha, Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel and Shan Masood all travel, and the attack still has Mohammad Abbas in it.

When to watch

The first Test starts at Headingley on Wednesday, 19 August, at 3.30pm IST. Lord’s follows from 27 August, Edgbaston from 9 September, and all three count towards the 2025-27 World Test Championship, a table neither side is currently enjoying. Root has done this job before and it ended badly. He is a better player now than he was then, which is not the same thing as being a better captain, and Headingley will tell us very little either way. It will still be the most watchable thing in English cricket this week.

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