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Mark Butcher: Stephen Fleming is a sound choice but ‘stopgap’ England captain Joe Root faces an uphill battle

Mark Butcher welcomes Stephen Fleming’s appointment as England Test coach but questions the decision to hand Joe Root the captaincy.
Stephen Fleming has spent the last 17 years specialising in T20 coaching

 

I thought the moment that Stephen Fleming left his role at Chennai Super Kings, which was about five minutes after the announcement that Brendon McCullum was being stood down as England’s Test coach, that this would be the likely outcome. And I feel largely positive about it.
Some people will point out that he’s not coached in red-ball cricket for a long time, having specialised in T20 since taking charge at CSK back in 2009.
But he played 111 Test matches, serving as a brilliantly astute captain in 80 of those, and he understands how to identify the strengths and weaknesses in the oppositi...

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