Former England Test captain Joe Root has ruled himself out of the running to become England's next white-ball captain.
Root, 34, has never led England in white-ball cricket, but captained the Test side between 2017 and 2022. He returned to the ODI set-up for England's tour of India this winter, and their Champions Trophy campaign which ended in Jos Buttler's resignation from the captaincy. Root ended the competition as its fourth-highest run-scorer, having almost got them over the line with a century in their tournament-ending match against Afghanistan.
Root: Ship has sailed for white-ball captaincy
Speaking to Sky Sports today (March 28), Root said: "I think that ship's sailed [captaining England in limited overs cricket]... I've done my time as a captain in an England shirt, but I'm sure whoever gets the opportunity to do it will be extremely proud and do a brilliant job."
While Root has dipped in and out of England's ODI squad over the past four years as his Test commitments allow, he hasn't played a T20I since 2019. He was part of England's 2016 T20 World Cup squad who were beaten in the final of the competition by West Indies.
His success for Paarl Royals in this year's SA20, however, where he scored 279 runs at an average of 55.80 and a strike rate of 140.20, brought calls for him to return to the T20I side. England have made significant changes to their T20I set-up since they lost in the semi-finals of last year's T20 World Cup, but did not name Root in their squad for the T20I series in India which came before the Champions Trophy.
🚨 Jos Buttler has stepped down as England's white-ball captain. pic.twitter.com/VBqSgJ4xze
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) February 28, 2025
There has been no official announcement on who will take over the reigns from Buttler since he announced his resignation ahead of their final Champions Trophy game against South Africa. Current vice captain Harry Brook is the bookies' favourite to take over, while Rob Key has said he will consider giving Ben Stokes the job alongside his red ball role. Giving Stokes the armband would mean England have the same captain and coach across formats, while Brendon McCullum has not ruled out picking separate T20I and ODI captains.
"The Champions Trophy was so disappointing," Root added. "We didn't play anywhere near what we're capable of. There's so much talent and so much more to come from that team. It's a really good opportunity to reset and to move forward again as a group and get back to the heights that we know we're capable of and where we were in and around that 2015 to 2019 phase."
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