Joe Root could hardly have asked for a better start to his return as England Test captain, but his comeback is less about reclaiming an old role and more about embracing a challenge he now feels better equipped to handle.Root had previously described his relationship with the England captaincy as unhealthy before stepping down.
Four years on, however, he believes his circumstances, experience and perspective have changed significantly.“Well, first and foremost, I think the landscape is very different now.
You look back at that time, we were just sort of coming out the other side of COVID, and as a team we'd spent 20-odd games in those kind of environments,” Root told Sky Sports.“And if I'm being brutally honest, I think having to do that for so long, it wasn't really the in-game stuff that wore me down.
It was the stuff that surrounded it, and being involved in things that weren't what you'd normally expect to be involved in as an England captain.”Root said the prolonged circumstances eventually affected both his enjoyment of the role and his ability to get the best out of himself and his players.“I think they sort of bled into everything else, and it got to a point where I wasn't enjoying it anymore, I wasn't getting the best out myself, certainly wasn't getting the best out of the players,” he said.“But I also think that was a byproduct of having to live the way that we were living for such a long period of time.
