THEY SAID WHAT?
Andrew Gale
We are all immensely proud of him at Yorkshire. He believed he had the talent and ability from a young age and he’s always thrived under pressure. The tough thing about England captaincy is you have to learn on the job and he’ll be thrown straight into it, but he’ll learn a lot about himself over the next few years.
Michael Vaughan
In terms of his personality and mentality, he’s absolutely ready.You look at the way he’s improved his game over the last few years by being dedicated and he’s always trying to get better and better every day. I’d think that’s what he’s going to demand from his team. The team better be ready for long training sessions and he’ll prod them regularly to make sure they keep improving.
David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd
If you are looking for comparisons on what you can expect of Joe, the obvious one is Virat Kohli. When Kohli is captaining you could assign a camera on him and it would keep you entertained. In the same way your eyes will be drawn to Joe. And he will encourage his team to have fun.The dressing room under Cook was jolly. I anticipate it being exactly the same under Root, plus 10 per cent.
Steve Waugh
The timing is right, particularly with an Ashes around the corner. It gives him a bit of time to settle into the role and have the expectation of an Ashes series, which is pretty all-encompassing for a captain. Root is the type of guy that likes the extra responsibility and then when he’s got extra focus on being a leader it can motivate him to play even better. If I was a betting man I would say his average will go up.
Graeme Swann
I’m still not convinced Root is the right man for the job. I want him to concentrate on being the best player we have ever had, rather than having his talent curbed by the pressures of captaincy. He has tried to be more sensible lately, but part of his cheeky chappy persona makes him the player he is, and I don’t want to see that taken away.
Jason Gillespie
It reminds me of the 1980s, where we had the four great all-rounders – Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev and Imran Khan – all competing on the world stage. This decade we’ve got four great batsmen in Joe Root, Steve Smith, Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson and with them now all leading their countries, to me it seems a similarly exciting time to be a cricket fan.