Humiliation For Joe Root! Loses 27th Test As Captain, Goes 2nd For Unwanted Record

After crossing 14,000 Test runs and a record 2,000 runs against New Zealand, Joe Root has added an unwanted record to his name at the Oval. England’s huge, 253-run defeat in the second Test made it 27 losses as a Test captain, the joint-second-worst with the former Black Caps skipper Stephen Fleming, and only behind South Africa’s Graeme Smith’s 29 defeats in the overall list.

Root had given up the Test captaincy owing to this poor record in April 2022. He was called back as an emergency stand-in for Ben Stokes when the latter got suspended by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for breaking the team’s midnight curfew and being involved in a drunken altercation at a nightclub. On the eve of the Test, it became clear why the ECB didn’t go with

vice-captain Harry Brook over Root.

Apart from Stokes and pacer Gus Atkinson, who was also involved in the nightclub incident, England also didn’t have the services of Ollie Robinson due to injury. It prompted the team to play with three debutants on a London pitch that was much better suited to a more seasoned team like New Zealand’s.

New Zealand scored 391 in the first innings and then restricted England to a deficit of 100 runs, before again smashing 361. It took them under an hour to take the last five English wickets on Day 5 to skittle the hosts for just 209, with pacer Matt Henry shining with an 11-wicket haul for the match.

Most matches lost as Test captain:

Rank	Player	Teams	Career Span as Captain	Tests Captained	Lost	Loss %
1	Graeme Smith	South Africa and ICC	2003–2014	109	29	26.61%
2	Stephen Fleming	New Zealand	1997–2006	80	27	33.75%
2	Joe Root	England	2017–2026	66	27	40.91%
4	Brian Lara	West Indies	1998–2006	47	26	55.32%
5	Allan Border	Australia	1984–1994	93	22	23.66%
5	Kraigg Brathwaite	West Indies	2017–2025	39	22	56.41%
5	Alastair Cook	England	2012–2016	59	22	37.29%
8	Mike Atherton	England	1993–2001	54	21	38.89%
8	Jason Holder	West Indies	2015–2020	37	21	56.76%
10	Misbah-ul-Haq	Pakistan	2011–2017	56	19	33.93%

“New Zealand played very well,” Root said after the match. “There were a number of occasions when the game was in the balance and they won those crucial moments. So, fair play to them on a brilliant performance. And, you know, it’s still one all in the series and everything to play for at Trent Bridge. (How difficult was it for you this week?) Yeah, but it was fun. I really enjoyed coming back into that space and working with Baz. And, you know, it was brilliant this week to experience that. So, and a great opportunity for those young guys coming into the team. And I think there was a huge amount of good that happened throughout the five days. And we just have to do things better for longer,” he added.