Root shows signs of greatness as skipper
The one thing I do not want Joe Root to do is to bat as a captain first. He has to forget he is the captain. He has to be the England No. 4 batsman. The hardest thing to do as captain is concentrate on your batting, but he managed it at Lord’s. His innings was not a captain’s innings, it was a Joe Root innings because he let his batting instincts take over.
South Africa allowed England to score too quickly and their body language was very poor. But that was down to the way Root attacked on that first afternoon. Great leaders assess the mentality of a team when they are out in the middle. Steve Waugh was a master at it. The Australians could sense when a team was down in body language and looked to capitalise straight away.
I felt Moeen Ali and Root on that first evening realised South Africa were there for the taking. They were bowling their second-string bowlers for too long. They sensed that Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander were waiting too long for the second new ball, so they attacked.
Body language
One thing you look for in a new player is: Does he belong in Test cricket? I feel the same about captaincy. When a new person is given the role, does he look right in the job? Is he in charge and looking like a leader? Yes, I felt Joe did.
Clearly, he will have harder weeks, and it was not a match to judge a captain on. After the first session on day one, England controlled the game quite comfortably, but he looked a captain in control. Only he will know if he played a tired shot in the second innings but I bet he slept better after the game than he ever has as an England player because of the draining nature of the job. Many of the players said he was a little different. It is not going to be the same Joe Root and everyone has to accept that.
Field settings
I do not understand why, on the last day, England had a deep cover point for Liam Dawson when South Africa were 28 for three and requiring another 300 to win. But it is just a fad of this era and modern captains go to that field these days. Overall, he was not quite as funky as I thought he might be. I think he kept it quite consistent, which is impressive because it is not easy when you first start leading the side to resist the temptation to tinker.
I liked him having four slips when he had a big first-innings score on the board and a youngster in Heino Kuhne opening the batting. Dean Elgar is not a bad player but he is not a devastating player either and attacking with the field forced the issue.
Tactics
One piece of advice I have for every young captain is to start your day with the best two bowlers from the previous day. He did not do that on Day Two. He started with two seamers in Ben Stokes and Mark Wood, rather than bowling Moeen Ali. When you get the opposition eight down, just bowl your best bowlers in that innings. It will change from game to game, day to day, but after lunch on the third day, he went to his seamers because he thought the tail-enders would get blasted away, but I think he will learn that spin against tail-enders is crucial. The turn and pace of a spinner is always difficult for tail-enders to face.