I mentioned Strauss yesterday, who was being his usual diplomatic self. But in reality, that was the turning point. Nasser Hussein started a run of England captains (with a couple of short term exceptions) that had grit, drive, and the ability to get the best out of their team. Vaughan and Strauss continued this work, and we ended up thrashing the Aussies at their place and being #1 in the world. There was unity of purpose, built on diversity, created by strong, flexible leadership.

Since then, we have had dressing room cliques, selection chaos, and what seems like a complete lack of leadership. It has been a systematic undoing of fifteen years of work.

And here we are, inevitably, back where we were in 1995. A team chock full of players who we know can play, and 68 all out. We’re back with Gough and Caddick, Butcher and Thorpe – hardly possible to think they are necessarily the problem. And I suspect we are back with Atherton. We certainly were with Cook in charge, and it is becoming increasingly clear that we are again.

Test runs for England this year :

1708 – Root
1204 – Root in team’s 1st inns
1047 – Root outside home
932 – Root vs India
876 – Root when won toss
832 – Root when lost toss
805 – Root in wins
794 – Root in Asia
661 – Root at home
648 – Root in losses
.
.
530 – Burns
412 – Extras

Excellent

Here’s a fun fact:

By February 6, Joe Root had already scored over 100 more Test runs than any other England player would manage in the whole of 2021.

How did that come up?

Finally a bit of common sense around here

I have a good feeling about tomorrow.