England Still All In With Joe Root. But Should They Be?

Something that’s flown beneath the radar in recent days is how much the surprising decision to appoint Chris Silverwood is also a vote of confidence in Joe Root. We’ve heard how well Silverwood gets on with Root, and how strong the chemistry is between them, so one assumes that getting more out of the skipper is one of the reasons why ‘the silver fox’ (as he shall henceforth be known) got the nod.

I thought that Michael Vaughan’s article on Silverwood’s appointment was particular interesting – especially as Vaughan is a fellow Yorkshireman (well, kind of) and knows both men personally:

Perhaps he is the style of coach that is better suited to working with Joe Root …  Maybe the reason they have gone with Silverwood is because Root needs a coach who will manage the team. Joe is not the kind of captain who runs the whole ship like Eoin Morgan does the one day team. He needs more help and I think Silverwood will bring a hands on approach. 

This is really encouraging to hear if true. We all know that Bayliss was rather ‘hands off’ and relaxed, so perhaps this appointment might change the dynamic between captain and coach even if it won’t change the failing team culture culture overall.

So what else do we know about Silverwood? For starters he’s popular with all the players. We’ve often seen him joking with them on camera, and there seems to be a genuine warmth. Consequently I expect him to be a nurturing and supportive presence rather than a distant disciplinarian who resorts to hairdryer treatments when plans go awry (like plans to bat longer than a session).

However, the question is whether this style of coach is what England’s test team needs right now? It’s difficult to tell from the outside but many, including myself, might wonder whether another ‘friendly uncle’ type head coach is warranted. After all, a disciplinarian might have been just the tonic to remedy what is an ill disciplined batting line up.

As fans we get very frustrated at the team’s poor short selection and inability to dig in, and sometimes it’s cathartic to imagine the players getting a good roasting after a dismal collapse. However, in the words of Wisden’s editor Phil Walker, maybe “coaches today tend to be avuncular listeners rather than alpha frontmen” for a reason.

It’s interesting to ponder whether the days of demonstrative coaches with authoritative personalities are over. I know this often applies to football, where players have egos bigger than the stadiums they play in, and they’re worth so much money that it’s sometimes easier for clubs to get rid of the manager than the star player they’ve fallen out with, but it remains to be seen whether cricket is becoming the same.

Appointing a coach that gets on well with Root could therefore be seen as something of a gamble rather than a slam-dunk. And one’s perspective might well depend on whether you think Joe Root is the right man to lead England now and in the future.

If we return to Michael Vaughan’s words above, it’s a little alarming to read that Root “needs a coach who will manage the team” and that he isn’t capable of running the whole ship like Eoin Morgan. It’s worth remembering that many of England’s test players also play in the ODI side; therefore they’ll have seen how Morgan goes about things and will naturally make comparisons with Joe. If Root’s leadership is weaker then this can only impact the test team negatively.

If Root really is a weak laissez faire leader then one might wonder whether it’s right to pick a coach on the basis that he’ll mask the skipper’s inadequacies. Instead it would make more sense simply to remove the captain, appoint a better one who can actually lead, and then look for the best coach in his own right.

What’s more, appointing a coach who is chums with the captain will only entrench perceptions that the England team is far too chummy all round. Selecting a continuity candidate as coach, who is close to the players, could be seen as Giles burying his head in the sand and refusing to admit that the dressing room culture needs to change.

The one fact we’re overlooking, however, is whether Silverwood can get more out of Root as a batsman. As a former specialist fast bowling coach he won’t be able to suggest many technical improvements, but he might well increase our star man’s productivity by making him feel more confident and comfortable in his own skin.

If Root can start making big hundreds again then this could boost the team just as much as any cultural change. It will also boost Root’s authority within the dressing room if he’s seen to be leading from the front rather than making pretty but ultimately ineffectual fifties.

It’s no secret that Root’s personal struggles with the bat reflect those of his team in general. Two years ago he averaged over 50 in test cricket. But his average since becoming captain in 2017 barely reaches 40. What’s more, his performances are getting worse: he averages in the low thirties since the beginning of last summer. If he was merely a specialist batsman (in any other era) then his place in the side might be in jeopardy.

Given our dismal defeat in the West Indies earlier this year, our failure to win The Ashes on home soil, and the negative impact the captaincy has had on his batting, many wondered whether Joe Root might want to step down as test captain at the end of this summer. And if he didn’t step down would he be pushed?

The appointment of Chris Silverwood puts this issue to bed (at least for now). It’s a big vote of confidence in both Joe Root’s tenure and the team culture that’s developed over the last two years.

However, until England start winning test matches again, and until Root remembers how to score centuries, it certainly won’t stop the debate and the doubts.

James Morgan

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12 comments

  • Quite apart from the effect that captaincy has had on Root’s form (can anyone remember an England player whose form was improved on being given the captaincy?), one could question whether he is the best captain available.
    I know that Buttler (and Morgan) are not guaranteed places in the side, but they are surely clearer choices than, for example, Mike Brearley?

    • I meant Mike Brearley was, of course – I’m not suggesting that he might come out of retirement!

      (I saw somewhere yesterday a quote from Don Bradman. He was watching an Ashes Test and was asked what he thought he would average against that current England line-up.
      40 or 50, he said – you must remember that I am 76!
      I may have not got the numbers exactly right…)

  • To me the only issue here is whether the dressing room is a happy place with Root ‘in charge’. We are not privvy to that, so all we have are his on field decisions, of which there have been a few strange ones of late.
    Is he getting a better captain and who is there to help him become so, tactically or man management wise. If you look at the present set up there is no one, apart from Burns, who is a new boy, with significant captaincy experience at first class level, so it looks like a case of learning on the job. Butler, as vice captain, is not even guaranteed a place in the side. This has always been the rub with test captains. If their playing form dips, which happens to all players, how long can we continue to justify their selection. Root, along with Stokes, are the only players with a guaranteed selection and Stokes has less captaincy experience.
    The problem with the public perception of Root is he is clearly still uncomfortable in front of the camera. When you look at the difference between his and Paine’s interviews there is no comparison. However, as we saw with the likes of Illingworth, the Alf Ramsay of cricket, that has little bearing on captaincy ability. Clearly there is no Brearley to bale us out this time, so who is a better bet?

      • If his name is going to make sense in his native language he has to make his mind up whether he’s a ‘Butler’ or a ‘Butter’. I cannot find a derivation in the dictionary for Buttler. I am sure there should be one but it must be pretty obscure if there is. For the sake of convenience maybe he should make the change, to make it relevant to our time, so we aren’t so inclined to overlook it.

  • I find it astonishing that you should select a coach to cover for the Captain.

    Get a new Captain and appoint the best coach.

    Or is English Cricket in such a poor state that there is no one to captain?

  • The single most important thing England could do for Joe Root the test batsman is find someone who can bat well at no3 and is happy in that role so that Root can go back to no 4. Ideally I would also like to see a new test captain, but there are not many obvious candidates. As a long shot I might see how Jack Leach handles being captain.

  • I seemed to have mentioned Roots captaincy in yesterday’s article. Root Asha’s had two years has test captain and he’ll no doubt get three. In this day and age that’s a long time in sport. If he was scoring heavy and still made the odd blooper on the captaincy front then he could be forgiven but he isn’t scoring heavy.

    We’ll just have to see how the match up with Silverwood works with Root and the test team in general over the winter, but in the end it’s a results based job for both of them and that’s what I hope they’ll be judged on.

  • Just because Eoin Morgan “runs the whole ship”, it doesn’t follow that all captains should be like that, and it’s a problem if they aren’t.

    Surely England should pick as captain the best on-field leader (because that’s bit that only the captain can do). If that person also happens to have an aptitude for some of the off-field managementy stuff, then great; that’s a nice bonus. If if they don’t, then ensuring the team manager is somebody who can do that makes sense. It isn’t necessarily an admission of any failings in the team captain.

    (Note I’m not claiming that Joe Root _is_ the best on-field leader available — merely that to me that seems the most relevant consideration.)

  • This debate is probably based on no more than reading a bit too much into the ECB press release, namely that Root was a fixture as captain. There could have been a thought process along the lines of Root remaining captain for the present, and Silverwood being helpful to him in turning round his performance as skipper (leaving the batting to look after itself). Nothing said explicitly about Root continuing in the captaincy after another sub-par series or two with the bat, and it would be unsurprising if they changed horses next summer, should Root not rediscover how to make meaningful amounts of runs.

    Of course, Root is not a convincing captain and is not doing himself justice as a batsman. His problem is not delivering big hundreds (though that would be nice) so much as delivering hundreds with any frequency. He has one of the poorest conversion records among recognised Test batsmen, and the CricViz stats suggest a significant problem of losing control (as they measure it) around the 100 ball mark. His average over the last 12 months is just under 32. In his career up to the point of becoming captain, he averaged 53. Although it may be he has developed technical problems unrelated to captaincy (like getting bowled through the gate) it really doesn’t look as if the captaincy is doing him any favours as a batsman. A change after the winter tours might be the right thing for Root and for England, but it depends on one of the succession candidates (Buttler or Burns) still being selectable in the batting order.

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