Ben’s Stoking the fire
NEW ENGLAND CAPTAIN PUTS ROOT BACK TO FOUR IN THE BATTING... AND ASKS WHEN THE NEXT ASHES ARE!
ENGLAND are again looking for a new No.3 after Ben Stokes made the call to move Joe Root back to four in the batting order.
It was the third big call that Stokes has made in the last few weeks – the other two being the decision to put himself back to six as the fulcrum all-rounder of the side, and the telephone call Stokes made as soon as Rob Key got the managing director job to tell Key that he was ready for the captaincy.
All three shouts give a glimpse into both the maturity of Stokes at 30 with 82 Tests under his belt, and the tactical prowess that he hopes to bring to the job as skipper.
Root, the finest batsmen in the Three Lions set-up, was prepared to sacrifice some of his own output by pushing himself back up to three in the Caribbean for the good of the team, who were still struggling for top-order runs.
But Stokes doesn’t think that makes the most of Root’s talents as a batsman, and he intends to lean heavily on his predecessor for both runs and advice. “I’ve already spoken with
Joe,” said Stokes.
“I’ve asked him to go back to four and
I’m going to be going in at six.
“Wherever Joe bats he gets runs, but his best position is at four. I feel that him at four and me at six gives us a bit of experience in the gap.
“So now you can obviously see where the places are opening up for people to put their hands up – it’s three and five.
“Joe will probably be averaging 90 instead of 60 now, so that’ll be good. And I told him that I will be using him, especially in my first few months in the job.
“I have a certain amount of experience in leading but Joe has done it for six years. I’ll be learning as I go.”
Stokes might well have one or two things still to pick up, given he used to constantly ask Root when tea and the close of play were. Such knowledge gets important when you’re juggling bowlers.
It’s not the only thing
England’s new skipper wasn’t too sure on. He didn’t precisely know when the next Ashes series is. “Is it next year?” he innocently enquired.
The Ashes might define each and every England Test era, and of course the lack of urn glory under his leadership will sting Root, but it cannot be the be-all and end-all for England, especially when the team have won one game in 17.
“We lost the last Ashes 4-0 so that is how far behind them we are,” said Stokes. “Australia was a very, very tough tour for a lot of people.
“But one thing I don’t want to do is focus six months or a year ahead, to
the next Ashes. I want to concentrate on what I’ve got coming up – June 2 against New Zealand – and what we do in that Test match, then what we do in the second Test match after that.
“All my efforts and energies need to go into each single Test match as they come.”