Succession: Who becomes England Test captain when Ben Stokes inevitably suffers his next major injury?

3 minute read

“Yes, if it is to be said, so it be, so it is,” as Greg Hirsch would say. Harry Brook has been named England’s T20 and one-day international captain, as we all assumed he would be. So what happens when Ben Stokes gets injured and can’t lead the Test team in, ooh, let’s say THE ASHES? Because we all know that is 100% definitely going to happen.

Even though Brook also plays Tests, he has taken the captaincy for both white ball formats because no-one could think of a better solution. It’s a tough ask, but he’s binned off franchise cricket and they reckon England’s schedule’s eased enough that his workload will be manageable.

Maybe it will. Brook will surely sit out the whole of August, which has become a fallow month in international cricket, then October’s looking pretty clear as well, before a tougher run where the Ashes butts up against T20 World Cup preparation early next year.

It’s a lot of playing, but how much captaincy will it entail? What is the likelihood that England have already lumbered their most exciting batter with triple format leadership responsibilities?

“I have of late decided not to tarry too much with hope.”

When we first wrote about Brook becoming ODI captain, back in February, we pointed out that it was in March of last year that Ben Stokes returned to full all-roundering and by August a hamstring was twanging him out of both bowling and batting. A bit of rehab, another return, and in December he was twanged out again.

Stokes fights with the strength of many men, but there’s something of The Black Knight about his attitude to doing so. “There’s a reason I have a Phoenix permanently inked on my body,” he tweeted in December. “See you on the field to fuck some shit up.”

What does this sound like if not a dinosaur having one last roar at the meteor before it wipes him out?

It’s just a flesh wound, isn’t it Ben?

“I’m not saying I’d make a better captain. That’s unsaid.”

Ollie Pope is England’s vice captain in Test cricket and has stood in for Stokes perfecly adequately in the past. But what do you make of him as a long-term candidate? You shouldn’t judge a book by a screengrab you took a year ago, as they say, but the image below always comes to mind when we think of his Test captaincy credentials.

That’s Pope serving as captain against Sri Lanka last summer. It’s just a snapshot obviously and doesn’t mean anything in itself, but it captures our view of him as essentially a specialist vice captain; a company man who can be trusted to provide holiday cover without faffing about with anything important.

Put it this way. Imagine Stokes is ruled out of the whole of the Ashes – who is going to step in? Pope or the guy who’s a fully-fledged England captain in the other two formats?

“If it is to be said, so it be, so it is.”