{"id":203005,"date":"2026-06-30T16:49:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T16:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/06\/30\/brook-would-accept-honour-of-test-captaincy\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T16:49:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T16:49:52","slug":"brook-would-accept-honour-of-test-captaincy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/06\/30\/brook-would-accept-honour-of-test-captaincy\/","title":{"rendered":"Brook would accept &#8216;honour&#8217; of Test captaincy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div >\n<p ><b >Harry Brook would accept the England Test captaincy and believes it is possible to lead the country in all three formats.<\/b><\/p>\n<p >England are looking for a new Test skipper after Ben Stokes&#8217; retirement and Stokes gave his &#8220;100%&#8221; backing to Brook becoming his successor.<\/p>\n<p >Brook told BBC Sport: &#8220;I don&#8217;t think you can turn down being an England Test captain.<\/p>\n<p >&#8220;It would be an honour and a privilege to be Test captain \u2013 the pinnacle of our sport.<\/p>\n<p >&#8220;It&#8217;s not up to me to make that decision. It&#8217;s up to people well above me. I&#8217;d be happy to do it if I did get asked.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p >Brook, 27, was named England white-ball captain last year and was promoted to Stokes&#8217; vice-captain in the Test side for last winter&#8217;s Ashes tour.<\/p>\n<p >As Stokes&#8217; deputy, he is an obvious candidate to become the 83rd man to lead England in Test cricket, with perhaps Stokes&#8217; predecessor Joe Root the only alternative.<\/p>\n<p >But Brook already has a heavy workload as one of England&#8217;s multi-format players, the demands of which are highlighted by the turnaround from the Test series against New Zealand ending on Monday to a five-match T20 series against India beginning at Chester-le-Street on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p >The busy schedule meant Brook only met all-rounder James Coles, who has been given his maiden call-up to an England squad, for the first time at training on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p >The last man to simultaneously lead England in all three formats was Andrew Strauss, in 2009. Strauss&#8217; spell in charge of the T20 side lasted for one match.<\/p>\n<p >Asked if it is possible to be a three-format captain, Brook replied: &#8220;I think it is possible. I&#8217;m not saying it would be easy, but I definitely do think it is possible.<\/p>\n<p >&#8220;The fact I don&#8217;t play franchise cricket means there are periods in my calendar when I wouldn&#8217;t be playing cricket.<\/p>\n<p >&#8220;I&#8217;d be focussing on my fitness and getting ready to play all three formats, which has been a dream of mine since I could speak or walk. If I am or I&#8217;m not captain for England in Test cricket, I&#8217;d be happy to just still be playing for England.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p ><b >England XI for first T20 v India on Wednesday:<\/b> Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, Harry Brook (captain), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid, Luke Wood, Saqib Mahmood. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >On Monday, England head coach Brendon McCullum said there are &#8220;lots of options&#8221; to replace Stokes as Test captain.<\/p>\n<p >Beyond Brook or Root, it is unclear who those options may be. Opener Ben Duckett is assured of his place in the Test side, while 22-year-old Jacob Bethell has led England in T20s.<\/p>\n<p >Pace bowler Ollie Robinson is a rare England cricketer who captains his county, Sussex, yet is far from a regular in the Test team.<\/p>\n<p >If England opt against Brook, he said he would be &#8220;absolutely fine&#8221; with that decision.<\/p>\n<p >&#8220;Whether I&#8217;m captain or not, I just want to play with the Three Lions on my chest and give it my everything,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p >Before he announced the third Test against New Zealand would be his last, Stokes missed the second Test at The Oval pending an investigation into an incident in a London nightclub.<\/p>\n<p >Brook was overlooked for the captaincy on that occasion, with the job instead being handed to former skipper Root.<\/p>\n<p >England director of cricket Rob Key said there were &#8220;many reasons&#8221; why Brook was not asked to deputise for Stokes, and admitted one of those was because of the Yorkshireman&#8217;s own involvement in a late-night incident during the winter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Brook was punched by a nightclub bouncer in Wellington on the eve of a one-day international against New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p >&#8220;I think the decision that was made was the right one,&#8221; said Brook. &#8220;Making Rooty captain that week was definitely the right decision.<\/p>\n<p >&#8220;He&#8217;s always been there &#8211; he&#8217;s been a stalwart for English cricket. In my opinion he&#8217;s the best batter to ever play Test cricket. England needed him that week and he stepped up. My job was to help him as much as possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p >Being England Test captain can come with many responsibilities beyond what happens on the field.<\/p>\n<p >In 1995, Michael Atherton led his team to a meeting with Nelson Mandela on England&#8217;s first tour of South Africa following apartheid.<\/p>\n<p >In 2022, Stokes was captaining England when The Oval Test against South Africa was paused because of the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth.<\/p>\n<p >Brook has attracted criticism for his actions off the field, like in Wellington, and his actions on the field.<\/p>\n<p >Former England skipper Michael Vaughan called Brook&#8217;s innings of 21 from nine balls on the fourth evening of the third Test against New Zealand &#8220;absolutely pathetic&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p >However, Brook&#8217;s Test average of 53.04 is the highest of any man to play for England in almost 60 years, and he is one of only four men to have scored a century in all three formats for the country.<\/p>\n<p >&#8220;I&#8217;m just happy that I&#8217;m playing cricket for England,&#8221; said Brook. &#8220;People are allowed opinions, and I always try to do what is best for the side.<\/p>\n<p >&#8220;Whether that&#8217;s going out there and trying to put the pressure back on the opposition, and playing some daft shots here and there &#8211; that might happen &#8211; or whether it&#8217;s trying to dig out a gritty innings to get a draw.<\/p>\n<p >&#8220;I&#8217;m just a person who wants to go out there, score as many runs as I possibly can and get the team into positions where we can win matches.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harry Brook would accept the England Test captaincy and believes it is possible to lead the country in all three formats. England are looking for a new Test skipper after Ben Stokes&#8217; retirement and Stokes gave his &#8220;100%&#8221; backing to Brook becoming his successor. Brook told BBC Sport: &#8220;I don&#8217;t think you can turn down [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.1 (Yoast SEO v18.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Brook would accept &#039;honour&#039; of Test captaincy - Tahrir News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/06\/30\/brook-would-accept-honour-of-test-captaincy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brook would accept &#039;honour&#039; of Test captaincy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Harry Brook would accept the England Test captaincy and believes it is possible to lead the country in all three formats. 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