By Michael Davey
Former England captain Nasser Hussain has urged Harry Brook to show greater maturity after he was overlooked for the role of Test skipper.
Following Ben Stokes’ retirement from international cricket during the recent series loss against New Zealand, England snubbed white-ball captain Brook in favour of reappointing Joe Root, who previously led the Test side between 2017 and 2022.
And Hussain believes that Brook only has himself to blame amid a lack of suitable candidates.
However, ECB managing director Rob Key has stated that Brook’s questionable temperament and current workload played no part in the decision to go with Root.
‘It’s a missed opportunity’
Speaking on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast, Hussain said: “I think Harry Brook is a very good captain.
“He’s become England’s white-ball captain and he’s doing it very well.
“But with him are all these off-field antics and that immaturity – you need the mature Harry Brook to come out, and it’s been lacking.
“That’s why I’m a little bit disappointed in Harry himself.
“I think there’s a very good captain in there. I think it’s a missed opportunity.
“One of the things in [new Test head coach Stephen Fleming’s] in-tray will be to sit with Harry Brook and actually say, ‘we’ve had to [give the captaincy] to someone that may not actually want to do it.’
“The lad that will do anything for English cricket in Joe Root is doing it again for English cricket because we couldn’t trust [Brook] to do the job.”
READ MORE: Cricket news: Mark Butcher unhappy with reappointment of Joe Root as England Test captain
‘Brook’s time will come’
Key, meanwhile, told Sky Sports: “I just don’t feel like this is the right time for Harry Brook to be the Test captain. That was the reason for that decision.
“I also think it’s tough to do all three, but that didn’t really come into it.
“We just felt that it was the right time for [Root] and he’s the right man.
“Brook’s time will come.
“He’s done a brilliant job – he’s taken the T20 team to number one in the world, they’ve just beaten the world champions in 50-over cricket.
“That’s a year and a half into a project with him and [white-ball head coach] Brendon McCullum.
“We’ve got three formats now where I’m so optimistic about what we can do in all three.”
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