They lost their captain, fast bowler, and opener to injuries, and they fired their white-ball coach. The loss of Graham Thorpe is being felt by the English game. And so it is fitting that on Wednesday in Manchester, England’s first Test against Sri Lanka will be captained by a different Surrey hitter.
This will be Ben Stokes’ team even though Ollie Pope becomes the 82nd person to captain England in a Test match. It was difficult to ignore the wounded man around when Stokes arrived at Emirates Old Trafford on Monday with his sunglasses on, a white sweater slung over his shoulders like a cape, and four England players in black training gear on either side of him.
England does not frequently switch captains. Only four men have captained England in Test matches since 2009. There have been seven prime ministers of the United Kingdom in the same period.
There has also rarely been a requirement for a stand-in. Since Michael Vaughan 17 years ago, there hasn’t been an England captain who has missed a Test due to injury. The only other occasion the full-time captain of England has missed a match was in 2020, when Joe Root was attending the birth of his second child.
When Root instructed his deputy Stokes to “do it your way” on that particular occasion, England swiftly benched Stuart Broad. This time around, there haven’t been any similar conflicts.
