New Zealand won by a thumping 160 runs <\/a>to seal a 2-1 victory in a three-match series.<\/p>\nBrook is already the captain of England\u2019s white-ball teams and the gifted 27-year-old batsman is also the official vice-captain of the Test side.<\/p>\n
But when Stokes was omitted from the second Test against New Zealand for breaking a midnight team curfew, it was former skipper Joe Root who led England at the Oval.<\/p>\n
Brook was denied the role after he was involved in an altercation with a nightclub bouncer in Wellington, New Zealand, ahead of England\u2019s woeful 2025\/26 4-1 Ashes series loss in Australia — an incident that led to the imposition of the curfew.<\/p>\n
Stokes: “A lot of emotion obviously” | 00:26<\/p>\n
Stokes, speaking to reporters at Trent Bridge after Monday\u2019s stumps, said: \u201cI know with all the controversy over the last couple of weeks, decisions were made. They were decisions I was not part of making.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are asked to be vice-captain for a reason, and I was vice-captain under Joe for a long time. It\u2019s the natural progression, if the captain is not there you step up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is absolutely no reason why Harry shouldn\u2019t be asked to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stokes said there was no way of knowing for sure if captaincy would boost or hinder Brook, who has an impressive batting average of over 53 in 38 Tests.<\/p>\n
But with England\u2019s three-Test series at home to Pakistan starting in August, Stokes had no doubts about the identity of the new red-ball skipper.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I was to be asked who I think should do it, I would be throwing my 100 percent support behind Harry Brook,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018INTERESTING RIDE\u2019<\/p>\n
Stokes, however, was less enthusiastic about England head coach Brendon McCullum and managing director Rob Key, the other two architects of a \u2018Bazball\u2019 era seemingly now at end.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s reverse was England\u2019s seventh defeat in their last nine Tests and also sealed a rare series loss on home soil.<\/p>\n
Stokes, asked if McCullum and Key were still the men to take England forward, replied: \u201cWhat me, Brendon and Rob have managed to do over four and a half years, I\u2019m not going to lie, it\u2019s been quite an interesting ride.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had some incredible highs and we\u2019ve had some pretty low lows as well, but I feel we\u2019ve always connected pretty well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m done now. I don\u2019t have to make those decisions, I don\u2019t have to be involved in all that kind of stuff. But I\u2019ve thoroughly enjoyed my four-and-a-half-year working relationship with Brendon and Rob.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum of England watch from the dressing room balcony during the final day of the 3rd Test between England and New Zealand at Trent Bridge on June 29, 2026 in Nottingham, England. (Photo by Philip Brown\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
McCullum, in a separate press conference, was asked if he had tried to talk Stokes, whose personality he said \u201calmost transcends\u201d cricket, out of his decision to quit international cricket.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes but you know Ben, with no success whatsoever actually,\u201d replied McCullum, who suggested he had only found out about Stokes\u2019 decision hours before it was announced.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he grabbed me yesterday (Sunday) morning when we arrived at the ground, he said \u2018Baz I\u2019m done\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI was just like: \u2018Slow down, you don\u2019t need to make any rash decisions right now, let\u2019s just talk through this.\u2019 He said: \u2018Honestly, I\u2019m done.\u2019 I felt like he was very definitive in his thought process, whereas in my head I hadn\u2019t really had him at that stage yet, so I thought there was still room for negotiation. There wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike Stokes, McCullum stopped short of backing Brook to step up as captain, saying the decision was \u201cone of those things we need to just take a bit of time to work out\u201d, that there were \u201cmany good candidates\u201d in a squad that contains \u201csome good strong leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure that we go through the right process to make sure that we give the next captain every opportunity to be successful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On his own future, the New Zealander stressed his desire to continue in the role despite calls from former England greats for a leadership overhaul.<\/p>\n
Baz: “It’s more about the celebration” | 00:23<\/p>\n
\u201cThe project isn\u2019t finished yet,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you take jobs like this, you know there are going to be days where you have to navigate through tough moments, and keep projecting forward to what you think the vision for your side is and how you are able to shape that. And again, for me, my enthusiasm and my commitment to English cricket has never wavered.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stokes intends to play on for county side Durham, but he denied suggestions he could yet face arch-rivals Australia during next year\u2019s Ashes in England.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m done,\u201d said Stokes, adding: \u201cI know it\u2019s the Ashes but I\u2019ll probably be watching it in a hospitality box somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Stokes has backed Harry Brook to succeed him as England\u2019s Test captain after bowing out of international…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[2620,64,63,14675,740,1208,31550,365774,365775,22255,17066,365777,68985,1736,214561,15299,668,365778,365773,47911,85,365776,60611,141736,3586],"class_list":["post-768953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brendon-mccullum","tag-cricket","tag-england","tag-home-soil","tag-hospitality-box","tag-impressive-batting-average","tag-international-cricket","tag-joe-root","tag-midnight-team-curfew","tag-natural-progression","tag-new-zealand","tag-nightclub-bouncer","tag-pakistan","tag-press-conference","tag-rare-series-loss","tag-red-ball-skipper","tag-series-loss","tag-sports","tag-stiff-run-chase","tag-three-match-series","tag-three-test-series","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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