Ollie Pope joins the club: Full list of England men’s Test captains

Ollie Pope is all set to become the 82nd man to lead England at men’s Test cricket. Starting with James Lillywhite, England’s current list of 81 captains is not only the most for any nation but nearly as much as the next two teams – Australia (47, despite starting as a Test side at the same time as England) and South Africa (39) – put together.

Partly, this is down to England being fickle with their captains – Test cricket is not even 150 years old – but that is not entirely the reason. Early tours were reached by sea, and often lasted six months. Only the cricketers who could take time out toured, and the captain was chosen from them.

Tours sometimes coincided. England sent teams to Australia and South Africa in 1891/92, and to New Zealand and the West Indies in 1929/30. But most significantly, until Len Hutton in 1952, only amateur cricketers could lead England. This resulted in cricketers being chosen to lead on non-Ashes tours based on social status and not cricketing skills, often for exactly one tour. Professional captains were rare even at county level. Legends like Sydney Barnes or Herbert Sutcliffe were, thus, never in the reckoning. 

Hutton, England’s 46th captain (well past halfway on the list of captains), led 23 times – at that point a record. However, had it not been for England’s insistence on amateur captains (he had to join the board of directors at Marsham Tyres to renounce his professional status) and the Second World War, Wally Hammond would certainly have led more than 20 times. But then, Hutton got the job towards the end of his career as well.

England found some stability after that. By 1973, Peter May had led them 41 times; Colin Cowdrey 27; Ted Dexter 30; MJK Smith 25; and Ray Illingworth 31 – all more than Hutton.

Since the 1990s, captaincy stints became longer – the increase in Test-playing teams and, as a result, matches, contributed to this – and Michael Atherton (54), Michael Vaughan (51), Andrew Strauss (50), Alastair Cook (59), and Joe Root (a record 64) all led them 50 times.

Ben Stokes has led England 27 times in Tests, once during Root's tenure, standing in during paternity leave, and then for England's last 26 Tests during the start of the 2022 summer. Given his patchy injury record, this might be some surprise, and he has often played as a specialist bat in that time. A tear to a hamstring has ended that streak, with Pope set to take charge for at least the Sri Lanka series. Stokes is aiming to return for England's tour of Pakistan in October.

List of captains for England in men’s Test cricket:

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