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I think today was another day that showed up Joe's lack of acumen as a captain - but through no fault of his own.

The whole 'learn on the job' thing really was exposed today. He looked like he was being outmanoeuvred by an average looking Sri Lankan side.

Does 'Give your best batsman' the captaincy work?

Is Morgan the best player in the ODI side? No. Does he have immense captaincy skills? Yes.

Time to breed a new young player on captaincy rather than just give it to whoever might be undroppable.

Think he was let down by his spinners as much as anything

You expect Rashid to be inconsistent but moeen had an off day today

They were unable to bowl anything remotely close to a consistent line and length in the last session or so which can make a captain look silly

Poor captaincy by Joe today. Not enough fielders around the bat on day 4 wicket assisting spinners more than enough. At no point of time he had both FSL as well as Silly Point for spinners, when all three of England spinners were bowling well and a 300 run target to defend. SL were 26/3 as well. A lot of times he could have had 4 - 5 close fielders today , but he missed the tactic. At the most he was having just 3 on rare occasion.

The Professor wrote:I think today was another day that showed up Joe's lack of acumen as a captain - but through no fault of his own.

The whole 'learn on the job' thing really was exposed today. He looked like he was being outmanoeuvred by an average looking Sri Lankan side.

Does 'Give your best batsman' the captaincy work?

Is Morgan the best player in the ODI side? No. Does he have immense captaincy skills? Yes.

Time to breed a new young player on captaincy rather than just give it to whoever might be undroppable.

Morgan has had the time to nuture his captaincy, since he was appointed as skipper for the 2015 Cricket World Cup and probably was England's top bat at the time. Bayliss being head coach and how England approach white ball cricket has also been a significant factor to the rise in Morgan's captaincy credentials.

In comparison the test team is going through a period of transition, a new top 3 and possibly new opening pace bowlers in future. Root is probably the only player less likely to be dropped so you need that reliability when it comes to leadership.

I don't know why Joe root is so reluctant to have silly point even on spin friendly wickets and three spinners in team bowling so many overs.

Overall a magnificent series win under his captaincy having led england to 3-0 whitewash over SL.

Root has captained England in 24 games now over seven series.

Won v SA (H)- 3-1.
Won v WI (H)- 2-1.
Lost v Australia (A)- 0-4.
Lost v NZ (A)- 0-1.
Drew v Pakistan- (H)- 1-1.
Won v India (H)- 4-1.
Won v SL (A)- 3-0.

Won 13, lost 9. Which is a fair record and includes a win against the world's best side. Although arguably his home record is down to James Anderson and his away record has room for improvement. Though these results come with Root shackled to their all time worse batting line up. Only he and Buttler average over 40 (of players involved in more than one series). Cook is/was the only opener to average more than 30.

It seems the often used argument that England had to retain Cook as skipper because there was no alternative didn't really hold up. People say Root relies on the dressing room when he is out in the middle, but the same was true of Cook. At least the gaffs and bad PR have improved.

Root averages 45.6 as captain so his input as a batter hasn't suffered greatly.

Of all England skippers to have led in a minimum of 35 Tests, Root is the only one with a loss percentage in excess of 40.

although he has been hampered by selectors pursuing a 'win the world cup at all costs' policy since he took over. How many other test captains have had teams presented to them with 3 wicket keepers in them or spin bowlers who only play white ball cricket?

Of course it could be argued that he should have been stronger and told those selectors that these decisions were unacceptable. Perhaps now the WC monkey is off his back he will

Interesting to see how Free Root looks when not captaining.

So so poor today.

The Professor wrote:So so poor today.

I wonder how long it will be before Stokes gets given it.

Stokes made lots of mistakes in his match too

what has surprised me is that this thread is 3 years old, which presumably means he's been in position for more than 3 years

where does the time go?

Thought I'd just take a look at his scores since the start of 2018:

0-19 runs - 25 innings
20-39 runs - 12 innings
40-59 runs - 12 innings
60-99 runs - 7 innings
100-150 runs - 3 innings
150+ runs - 1 inning.

Is that good enough for a man of his talent?

That's that then