As the great and the good lined up to hug and high-five Ben Stokes on the last two days of the third Test in Nottingham, it felt almost rude to point out that England were heading towards one of the worst defeats in their history.This is not to denigrate New Zealand, who overcame the absence of Glenn Phillips, their best batsman during the first two Tests, and Matt Henry, who had moved joint-top of the ICC bowling rankings after taking 11 wickets at the Oval, to secure one of their greatest triumphs. They coped with their setbacks in a way England did not.But England don’t lose very often at home. And this was only the sixth time in their 149 years as a Test nation, and the first in the 21st century, that they had done so after winning the first match of the series. The legacy a captain leaves is as telling as the results he achieves, and no one can argue that Stokes has left England in rude health. They are, it’s true, better placed than when he took over from Joe Root in 2022: at that point, England had won one of their previous 17 Tests, whereas the current sequence is two out of 10, with both victories coming on bad pitches at Melbourne and Lord’s that created the air of a lottery.But they are far worse off than they were less than a year into the Bazball project, by which time they had whitewashed New Zealand thanks to three chases between 277 and 299, knocked off a national-record 378 to beat India at Edgbaston, come from behind to beat South Africa, and become the first visiting team to win 3–0 in Pakistan, starting with a ridiculous 500 in a day at Rawalpindi.It remains an indictment of the conservatism that has always blighted English cricket that some were already turning against them even as they rewrote the record books. As the great and the good lined up to high-five Ben Stokes at the end of the third Test, it felt almost rude to point out that England had suffered one of the worst defeats in their history. England had done the impossible under Stokes’ early leadership, including a national-record chase of 378 to beat India at Edgbaston in 2022 They became the first visiting team ever to win 3-0 in Pakistan with a string of epic displays led by Stokes’ fantastic captaincyYet from that high point the successes grew fewer and further between. Starting with the careless one-run defeat by New Zealand at Wellington in February 2023, England have won 17 Tests and lost 19. In four marquee series against Australia and India, the ratio gets worse: six wins, 12 losses.Between 2005 and 2015, England won four successive home Ashes. Between 2011 and 2018, their home record against India was 11 wins and two defeats. On both counts, England under Stokes went backwards.It felt symbolic, too, that their final run chase under his leadership, a near-impossible 373 on an increasingly capricious Trent Bridge pitch, should begin with a bit of uber-Bazball. Promoting himself to open because England felt they needed quick runs against the new ball before the old ball became hard to manoeuvre, Stokes set the tone for the kind of hour his team were supposed to have left behind.For a side still trying to reconnect with the public after the Ashes, their mad thrash to 103 for four off 15 overs felt as tin-eared as McCullum’s suggestion after losing the second Test at Brisbane that England had over-trained. Both scenarios contained a grain of truth, but it was not what the public wanted to hear. Brook: I’m ready to captain England across all three formats Harry Brook has said it would be a ‘great honour’ to become England’s next Test captain after Ben Stokes backed him to take up the job in time for the three-match series against Pakistan starting in August.Brook leads England today/tomorrow at Chester-le-Street in the first of eight white-ball matches against India, and insisted he could lead his country in all three formats by continuing to place international cricket ahead of the franchise circuit.On Monday head coach Brendon McCullum sidestepped the question of whether Brook could replace Stokes, who had announced his retirement as an England player the day before.Daily Mail Sport revealed that England are considering handing the role to former captain Joe Root, until Brook – the official vice-captain – is ready for the role. When Stokes missed the second Test while the ECB investigated his night out after the win at Lord’s, it was Root who stepped in, and England are nervous about overloading Brook while he does the white-ball job.But Brook said: ‘It would be a great honour and a privilege to captain England in the highest format of our game. I don’t think you can turn down being an England Test captain.‘Playing Test cricket is the greatest thing that I’ve ever done in my life. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do since I could speak. It’s not up to me, that decision, but if I got offered it, then I’d be happy to take it.’He added: ‘I’ve committed completely to England cricket. I’ve said that I don’t want to play any franchise cricket barring the Hundred.‘Whatever I do on and off the field is to try and perform as well as I possibly can for England. Hence the reason I don’t play in the IPL and PSL and all the other franchise competitions.’LAWRENCE BOOTH<!- – ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/us/sport/cricket/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_1 – ->
The ECB’s rationale for keeping McCullum has been his willingness to ‘adapt and evolve’ since Australia, yet Harry Brook’s nine-ball 21 in particular emitted vibes so carefree it was as if we were back in the early days of Bazball, when Stokes overdid the aggression to ensure his team-mates got the message. His performance looked less like evolution than the dying splutters of a revolution in which most others had already waved the white flag. When Stokes took over four years ago, he had at his disposal some major players: Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Jonny Bairstow, plus a fresh-faced Brook and, in Root, an ex-captain freed from the burden of leadership.But the team England fielded for the second Test against New Zealand at the Oval, which included five players with a combined total of two caps, was not just a consequence of the chaos wrought by the Rex Rooms saga: it was a worrying reflection of county cricket’s failure to top up the talent pool. McCullum enjoyed the newcomers’ enthusiasm, but was startled by their naivety.And it is at this delicate moment in the team’s narrative that Stokes has called it a day. But the wheels came off in the final few years, unable to beat Australia or India at home as England usually have done this century England stopped growing under Stokes’ leadership, as if the giant shadow he cast blocked out the light, and they have been left without an identity only 12 months before the next Ashes STOKES’ WIN RATE WENT DOWN EVERY YEAR Year TestsWon Drawn Lost Win % 2022 1090190.0 2023841350.020241360746.22025941444.42026310233.3 That he’s had enough is indisputable. There also can be no doubting his work ethic or his passion or the memories he has created for a generation of fans. He will go down as one of England’s most significant cricketers.But England stopped growing under his leadership, as if the giant shadow he cast blocked out the light, and they have been left without an identity only 12 months before the next Ashes.The ECB believe there is no rush to appoint his successor, with the first Test against Pakistan not starting until August 19. But the fact that, after Monday’s defeat, McCullum felt unable to commit to Brook, the official vice-captain, did not speak volumes for England’s succession planning. Suddenly, Root is back in the mix, which would represent a funny kind of progress.England are in a rare old mess, though also a familiar one. Even without Stokes, whatever happens next will be compelling.