Joe Root the frontrunner to step in as England Test captain for Pakistan series

Joe Root is the frontrunner to step in as Test captain for the Pakistan series next month as the process of appointing England’s next men’s red-ball coach grows ever more complicated.

The England & Wales Cricket Board is juggling three shortlists, just over three weeks before the squad assembles for the first of three games against Pakistan. The first is of potential appointments as permanent coach, the second of plausible interims should the process of whittling down the first still be ongoing when the series begins. In the latter case, there would be a third decision to be made over who should captain the side until the coaching question is settled and the most likely option would be Root to step in, just as he did for the recent Test against New Zealand at the Oval when Ben Stokes was in effect suspended for breaking a team curfew.

A fortnight after Brendon McCullum was informed that his time in charge of the red-ball team was at an end – leaving him at the helm of the white-ball sides – the ECB has started the process of interviewing prospective coaches. Justin Langer, the Australian who is coaching Manchester Super Giants in the Hundred, is believed to have fallen from favour, with the former England batter Jonathan Trott, the Glamorgan head coach, Richard Dawson, and McCullum’s former New Zealand teammate Stephen Fleming among those still in contention.

Rob Key, the ECB’s managing director of men’s cricket who is leading the recruitment process, is expected to run multiple rounds of interviews over a number of weeks before making an appointment. When McCullum left the job Key was optimistic of having a new coach in place before the squad reconvened, but the ECB is increasingly resigned to – and relaxed about – the process dragging on beyond 19 August, when the first Test against Pakistan starts at Headingley.

Jonathan Trott, a former England Test batter, is one of the candidates for the position of red-ball coach. Photograph: Jason O’Brien/Reuters

Once that series ends on 13 September there is a gap of 87 days before the team is next in action, when their tour of South Africa starts with a three-day game against a CSA Invitational XI in Durban, and sources say they are determined to pursue the best appointment rather than the quickest.

Key is therefore preparing to select an interim coach and captain for the Pakistan series. Marcus Trescothick, who worked as assistant coach under McCullum, has been the presumptive pick as interim but is not the only candidate under consideration. Root is favourite to lead the side on the pitch, however.

After retiring from international cricket four weeks ago, Stokes anointed Harry Brook as his permanent successor as captain, but the 27-year-old also leads the white-ball teams and is doing so with such success that there is no desire to replace him unnecessarily. Of his 44 games in charge, Brook has won 64% – of the 18 players to have captained England’s men, across one or multiple formats, in more than 35 games the next best is Mike Brearley, who won 59%.

It is unlikely that anyone will be asked to captain in all three formats given England’s bewilderingly congested schedule: the white-ball side could be playing a T20 against Sri Lanka at Southampton’s Rose Bowl within 48 hours of the Pakistan series ending at Edgbaston, while the first white-ball series of next summer, also against Pakistan, is due to conclude in Cardiff around 36 hours before the first Test starts against Bangladesh at Lord’s.