'In emergency, break glass' - England seek stability in Root

In emergency, break glass. Get Joe Root.

How many times have England needed Root to dig them out of a hole? Close your eyes and you can picture it. Two wickets down, next to no runs on the board, Root striding down the steps and stretching at the boundary's edge before sprinting halfway to the crease.

And now this. An SOS to England's greatest ever batter to clean up the mess made in a London nightclub.

On the day Harry Brook replaced his fellow Yorkshireman at the top of the Test batting rankings, it is not the vice-captain England have asked to step in as interim captain, but the former skipper.

The investigation into Ben Stokes' actions in the early hours of Monday morning has left England with a very specific set of circumstances.

If Stokes was ruled out of the second Test against New Zealand at The Oval next week because of an injury, it seems likely Brook would have been given the job.

Despite his misdemeanours in the winter, Brook retained the captaincy of the limited-overs team and led them to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup. He will be England captain next month for the white-ball series against India.

Yet to have a situation where one captain is out of the team because of an incident in a nightclub, only to be replaced by another captain who eight months ago was punched outside a nightclub in Wellington, would have been absurd.

What does Root make of it all? It is worth remembering he was largely distanced from the boozing in Noosa, the sole England player to have his family present on the mid-Ashes series holiday.

Does Root ever look around the dressing room, which he once shared with the likes of Alastair Cook, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, and wonder how he has become the one grown-up left?

His 13,952 Test runs have not just appeared out of the Yorkshire ether. They are the product of 14 years of dedication, desire and diligence.

And he has done his time as England captain. Five years and 64 matches – more than any other man to hold the office.

It is a job that can leave a cricketer feeling twice as old and half as happy, and there was a sense the crown never really sat comfortably on Root's head.

He bucked a trend when his own batting form improved while the team fell apart around him. Root later explained that being alone at the crease was the only time he felt like he was getting any peace.

By the end, after one win in 17 matches and a traumatic Covid-affected Ashes tour of Australia, Root was done.

There would have been absolutely no desire to go through any of it again. Root would have been well within his rights to tell England to jog on when his name arose as a potential solution to this latest crisis.

But Root is Root. A nicer human being you could not wish to meet. Is this a sense of duty to his team? To his country? His great mate Stokes?

From meeting as teenagers, Root and Stokes have been together for every significant moment in English cricket in the past decade and more.

The implosion of a team during the 5-0 Ashes drubbing in 2013-14, and the rebuild to regain the urn in 2015 - the last time England beat Australia.

The 2019 World Cup and Stokes' Headingley miracle of the same year. Covid and Bazball. Winning as darkness fell in Rawalpindi and losing by one run in Wellington. The Jonny Bairstow stumping and the Heist of Hyderabad. The latest Ashes debacle.

They have been there for each other, too. Stokes' peak was under Root's captaincy, so too was the Bristol incident that almost cost the all-rounder his career.

There was an emotional phone call between the two in the summer of 2021, when Stokes took a break from the game. A year later, when Root relinquished the captaincy, Stokes was there with what he called "love, respect and support".

England have described the arrangement for the second Test as "interim", and its impermanence seems important.

On Monday, when it first emerged that Stokes and Gus Atkinson were in hot water, there was an immediate feeling it would spell the end of Stokes' captaincy.

It still may. There is an ongoing investigation. Stokes could decide to walk.

But, with every passing hour, the temperature is cooling. Stokes could return for the third Test at Trent Bridge or, more likely, the series against Pakistan later in the summer.

Still, Stokes has given a window into what England's life might be without him. For the first time in his career, Stokes the cricketer is not indispensable. Earlier this week, head coach Brendon McCullum had to defend his batting, and back Stokes to return to form.

If Brook had been put in charge, England may have seen something they like. Brook and McCullum seemed more aligned during the T20 World Cup than Stokes and McCullum did during the Ashes.

Brook would have been captaining his peers, whereas Stokes leads a group of younger men, many of whom grew up idolising him. Maybe England would have found a Stokesless formation that makes them stronger: the leg-spin of Rehan Ahmed as the all-rounder, followed by four specialist seamers.

None of this becomes an issue with Root in charge. He will be all too happy to hand over the reins when the time comes.

These roles were once reversed. In the Covid summer of 2021, Stokes stepped in for one Test while Root was on paternity leave. Root left a note on Stokes' peg in the dressing room which said: "Do it your way".

Now, Root will do it his way. Clapping his hands from first slip, long sprints to talk to his bowlers. A smile on his face, maybe a classic Rootian century. Not the puffed-out chest of an alpha like Stokes, just the calm reassurance of English cricket's most dependable presence.

Once again, it is Joe Root riding to England's rescue.