England appoint Root and Fleming as Test cricket captain and coach

What the report says

Al Jazeera, citing Reuters, reports that England have reappointed Joe Root as men’s Test captain and named former New Zealand batter Stephen Fleming as Test head coach. The changes follow Ben Stokes’s retirement from international cricket last month and Brendon McCullum’s departure from the Test coaching role. McCullum will continue with England’s white-ball teams.

Root, 35, is England’s all-time leading run-scorer in Test cricket and previously captained the side from 2017 to 2022. During that first spell, he led England in a record 64 Tests and won 27. He also stood in as captain for the second Test against New Zealand at The Oval this summer when Stokes was unavailable. Root is due to lead England in a three-Test home series against Pakistan beginning August 19.

Fleming, 53, arrives after serving as head coach of Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. A former New Zealand Test captain who played 111 Tests, he takes over an England red-ball side that Al Jazeera says is seeking to rebuild after poor results and off-field incidents contributed to McCullum’s dismissal from the Test job.

Fleming will formally begin after the Pakistan Test series, with assistant coach Marcus Trescothick in charge on an interim basis until then. The appointments matter because they reset England’s Test leadership at a time of transition, pairing one of the country’s most accomplished batters with a coach widely experienced in international and franchise cricket.