Ben Stokes says Harry Brook should be next in line for the Test captaincy and has offered the young Yorkshireman his “100% support”. Brook, already in charge of England’s two white-ball sides, had been vice-captain in red-ball cricket until last week’s Oval Test, when Stokes’ one-match ban saw Joe Root step back into the role.
“There’s a reason why he was asked to be vice-captain of this team,” Stokes said. “You don’t ask someone to be vice-captain if you don’t think that they’ve got the skills and the ability to be able to captain the team when they need to. So if I was to be asked who I think should do it, I’m throwing my 100% support behind Harry Brook.”
Those words came shortly after England’s innings defeat at The Oval, a result that levelled the summer series at 1-1 and reopened the debate about leadership succession. Root’s recall was a short-term fix rather than a long-term plan. England management, according to conversations with several senior figures, are wary of placing the captain’s armband on one player across all three formats. If Brook inherits the Test job, he is expected to hand over at least one of his limited-overs roles. Sam Curran and Jacob Bethell have both been mentioned internally as possible white-ball skippers.
From the outside it looks a simple handover. Brook is 27, an automatic pick in every squad, and respected by a dressing-room that values direct talk and calm decision-making. Yet the practicalities are trickier. Test tours to Pakistan and New Zealand this winter overlap with a white-ball series against West Indies, meaning any all-format captain would spend almost six straight months on the road.
Brendon McCullum, England’s head coach, struck a measured note when asked on Sky Sports about the timeline. “Those are the conversations we need to have in due course,” he said. “We’ve got a few weeks longer than that before the next Test series, and we’ll have a good opportunity to be able to sit down and start to map out what that looks like. The good thing is, we’ve got some good, strong leaders within the side.”
McCullum added: “They won’t be Ben Stokes, because Ben Stokes is very much his own type of leader, which we all adored, and it will need to be some work put in there, but that’s just the nature of things. No one can play forever, no one can captain forever.”
Brook’s own views remain private for now. Close friends say he is “interested but not lobbying”, conscious of the physical and mental load Stokes has carried since 2022. As vice-captain he already sits in on selection meetings, runs fielding drills, and fronts portions of the media duties. Taking the final step would add strategic planning and, perhaps most draining of all, responsibility for England’s fluctuating red-ball fortunes.
The Oval loss under Root underlined how quickly momentum can swing. England’s bowling lacked penetration on a flat deck, while the batting folded inside two sessions. Would Brook have made different calls? It is impossible to say. What mattered, insiders insist, is that Root never saw the match as a job interview. He had done 64 Tests already; this was filling a gap.
Root was later asked by Sky whether he fancied reclaiming the captaincy on a permanent basis. His reply was typically understated: he is available if needed but happier helping a new leader. For a man who once obsessed over field placements deep into the night, that sounded like genuine relief.
In the end, the choice may come down to timing. Stokes, 35 next month, has not set a retirement date but recognises that knees, hips and motivation do not last for ever. Brook, by contrast, is entering his peak years. England can either give him the Test side now and allow him to grow, or wait and risk a stop-gap period that could stall progress.
Stokes made his preference clear. “He’s someone who’s obviously an incredible player, one of the more senior players in this group … Only time will tell, but you don’t ask someone to be vice-captain if you don’t think that they’ve got the skills and the ability to be able to captain the team when they need to.”
The ball, as McCullum hinted, is squarely in the board’s half of the pitch.
