Former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott has criticized Joe Root’s leadership during England’s defeat to New Zealand in the second Test at The Oval, saying the stand-in captain did not appear to have learned “anything” from his previous coaching career. Boycott also welcomed the return of Ben Stokes for the third Test and said England needed him to take charge again.Stokes missed the second Test and an investigation was launched after England’s victory in the first Test after he and Gus Atkinson allegedly got into an altercation with a rugby player in a nightclub. Root was named captain ahead of vice-captain Harry Brooke. England fielded three debutants in this match and suffered a 253-run defeat, Root’s 27th defeat as Test captain.The England and Wales Cricket Board later confirmed Stokes would return for the third Test. The board said Stokes and Atkinson received written warnings after being found guilty of breaching their contractual obligations.Writing in The Telegraph, Boycott said: “Thank goodness Ben Stokes will return to the England squad at Trent Bridge as Joe Root appears to have learned nothing from his last experience as England captain.”He also praised Root’s batting prowess while questioning his captaincy.“Now that Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson have retired from Test cricket, Root is the undisputed best batsman in the world. What a wonderful thing to be able to say that to a fantastic lad that everyone, including myself, likes. But after praising his batting, I am not happy to say that he has no feeling for captaincy, as we saw at the Oval,” he added.Boycott pointed out Root’s handling of Jofra Archer, saying it reminded him of England’s tour of New Zealand in 2019, when Archer was asked to bowl long and spent long periods bowling short.“Captain is a gift and a good leader who has a natural understanding of who to bowl to and what pitches to set for different batsmen,” Boycott wrote. “You can’t read it in a book but you can learn by watching opposition captains from all over the world. Sometimes it’s intuition or luck and sometimes when you find someone who’s lucky and good, you get a leader who is very successful. Stokes was very good against Jofra Archer and Joe seemed to make the same mistakes at the Oval as he did when captaining England in New Zealand in 2019,” he added.Boycott was particularly critical of Archer’s workload late on the opening day.Boycott wrote: “It was crazy that Joe asked him to hit eight overs at the Oval at the end of the first day and target New Zealand batsman Glenn Phillips and tail-spinners with plenty of short balls.”
