Joe Root wants Stokes-McCullum to continue as captain-coach duo despite Bazball drowning

Experienced campaigner and former captain Joe Root has defended England's head coach-captain duo of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes despite horrendous performances in the longest format of the game in recent years. The Three Lions go into the fifth and final Test of the ongoing Ashes while trailing with a 3-1 margin, with many raising question marks over continuity of Stokes as the skipper and McCullum as the coach beyond the Ashes.

The star cricketer, however, highlighted how the members of the English team and the squad in itself had bettered themselves in their manner of approaching the Test format, which reflected in the overall statistics under Stokes' captaincy as compared to when England played under Root as the full-time skipper. Root wants 

“In terms of the playing group, we’re absolutely committed to the management. They’ve been outstanding. You look at the group of players that we’ve got and look at the guys that were involved in the team when I was captain four years ago, and you look at their records individually, and every single one of them has improved as a player. This team has improved. I think it would be silly for the amount of hard work and things that have been done,” stated Root, as quoted by BBC.

The 34-year-old underscored how the Aussies overpowered England whenever the latter went cold during the first three matches. However, the Yorkshire cricketer concluded by mentioning that he was happy with the way England responded in the fourth Test.

“Of course, whenever you lose a series, it’s very disappointing. And every time you go out there, you’re doing everything you can to be on the right side of the result. I didn’t want to come here and lose another Ashes series. But unfortunately, sometimes you get outplayed, you make a few mistakes and good oppositions will hurt you. But it was really important that we responded well to that, and when we got our opportunities this week, we did that,” he added.

England have won 26 out of 45 Tests ever since McCullum took over as head coach. The duo of McCullum and Stokes boast a win percentage of 57%. Root had managed to win only 27 out of 64 manages as Test captain. However, in all the three completed editions of the World Test Championship, England haven't qualified for the finals even once, raising doubts over their capabilities.