{"id":641916,"date":"2026-06-16T16:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T16:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/641916\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T16:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T16:26:11","slug":"stand-in-captain-joe-root-admits-england-have-let-themselves-down-with-behaviour-england-cricket-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/641916\/","title":{"rendered":"Stand-in captain Joe Root admits England have let themselves down with behaviour | England cricket team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Root has acknowledged England have \u201clet ourselves down\u201d with some \u201cdisappointing\u201d behaviour in recent months. These culminated in the episode in a Chelsea nightclub last week that has forced Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson out <\/a>of the second Test against New Zealand and prompted Root to resume the captaincy<\/a> on what he described as a \u201cgame-by-game basis\u201d.<\/p>\n

Stokes and Atkinson have been sidelined after breaking the team\u2019s midnight curfew while celebrating England\u2019s victory<\/a> in the opening game at Lord\u2019s. As a result Root has returned for a 65th Test as captain \u2013 with more perhaps to follow \u2013 more than four years after he stepped down from a role with which he said at the time he had developed \u201ca very unhealthy relationship\u201d<\/a> that \u201cstarted to take a bad toll on my own personal health\u201d.<\/p>\n

Root was also involved in the post-Lord\u2019s celebrations, but left in time to meet the curfew imposed<\/a> on the squad after a winter marked by a series of embarrassing incidents<\/a> involving discipline and alcohol<\/a>. \u201cFrom a personal point of view, it has been disappointing,\u201d he said. \u201cThere has been a few occasions as a team we\u2019ve let ourselves down, and we\u2019ve let each other down.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to learn from those mistakes and make sure we understand we shouldn\u2019t be putting ourselves in those situations. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a fair reflection of our dressing room. It\u2019s an incredibly professional dressing room that works extremely hard, that turns up and puts everything into each and every training day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of being able to celebrate wins,absolutely you should be able to do it, but doing it at the right time is very important, understanding that and making sure we don\u2019t find ourselves in situations like this. These things should never happen, but we are where we are. We\u2019ve got to learn from it and move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his previous experience in the job, Root said he was \u201creally excited\u201d to captain the team at the Oval this week and to work in the role alongside Brendon McCullum. He notably refused to rule out leading the side on a permanent basis should Stokes be unable or unwilling to do so.<\/p>\n

Joe Root\u2019s stint as full-time Test captain ended in the spring of 2022 with a series defeat in the West Indies. Photograph: Ricardo Mazal\u00e1n\/AP<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a very different player and have a different way of looking at the game than the last time I captained, in a good way,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is going to be cool to experience the captaincy side with Baz and with this coaching group. I have never had more fun and got more out of a group of coaches than this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Root has dusted down his old captain\u2019s blazer \u2013 \u201cIt was in a cupboard in the garage. It was a bit creased when I got it down\u201d \u2013 with McCullum key to his decision to wear it once again. \u201cI have really enjoyed the last couple of days, working with Baz in a slightly different space,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a small way \u2013 in a good way \u2013 I was slightly envious of that opportunity, to work with someone like Baz in this sort of capacity. It has been really cool, the last couple of days. It\u2019s a very different look to even the team we had [at Lord\u2019s] but it is very exciting to get to lead those guys out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Root has acknowledged England have \u201clet ourselves down\u201d with some \u201cdisappointing\u201d behaviour in recent months. These culminated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-641916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}