Ben Stokes never changed out of his training kit on his last day as an England cricketer. He watched from the dressing room as New Zealand took the final wickets they needed at Trent Bridge, completing a series win that ended Stokes’s four-year reign as Test captain and, within days, his international career altogether. The man Stokes wants to succeed him, Harry Brook, has now said he would welcome leading England in all three formats at once, a job cricket has rarely let anyone hold for long.
A Path From Vice-Captain To Contender
Brook took over England’s white-ball captaincy in April 2025 after Jos Buttler stepped down following a group-stage Champions Trophy exit, and was named Test vice-captain ahead of last winter’s Ashes series. When Stokes was stood down for the second Test against New Zealand following a breached curfew, the job went to Joe Root on an interim basis rather than to Brook, a call Brook himself accepted as the correct one at the time.
Root led again for the third Test, which England lost, and it was during that match that Stokes told his teammates he was retiring from international cricket entirely.
Harry Brook England Test Captaincy Series
Speaking two days later, Brook described taking the Test job as a genuine honour, something he had wanted since childhood. Stokes has since thrown his full public support behind Brook as his successor, and Brook has said he would welcome unifying all three formats under his leadership and working more closely with head coach Brendon McCullum.
Captain | Nation | Formats Led Simultaneously | Tenure | Test Win Percentage |
MS Dhoni | India | Test, ODI, T20I | 2008-2014 (Tests) | 45% (27/60) |
Virat Kohli | India | Test, ODI, T20I | 2017-2022 | 58.8% (40/68) |
Rohit Sharma | India | Test, ODI, T20I | 2022-2025 (Tests) | 50% (12/24) |
Ben Stokes | England | Test only, declined ODI/T20I | 2022-2026 | 56.1% |
No decision has been made yet at all. England managing director Rob Key has not named a permanent successor, and Root, still only 35 and unlikely to want the job long-term, remains an option if Brook is judged not ready.
Most Triple-Format Captains Don’t Last Long
India is the clearest case study for what happens next. MS Dhoni led all three formats through the late 2000s and into 2014, before retiring from Tests mid-series, with the board pointing to the physical strain of playing every format at once and his Test win rate sitting at 45%.
Virat Kohli held the role from 2017 to 2022, built the best Test win percentage of any Indian captain, yet won no ICC white-ball titles and gave up all three jobs within four months, citing workload. Rohit Sharma inherited the full set in 2022, dominated white-ball cricket, but posted only a 50% Test win rate before retiring from the format in 2025 following a home whitewash. Each time, the format that suffered first was Tests, the one requiring the most sustained physical and tactical output.
Stokes’s Version Worked By Subtraction
Stokes’s Test captaincy succeeded partly because he never tried what Brook is now considering doing at once. He gave up the ODI captaincy in 2022, citing the physical and mental demands of playing all three formats simultaneously, and never captained England in T20Is at all.
Focused solely on Tests, he built a 56% win rate, the best of any England captain with ten or more wins, and turned a two-Test losing habit into a genuinely entertaining, if occasionally reckless, era. His success was a case study in subtraction, not addition.
The Workload Question Facing the Favourite
Whoever gets the job inherits a calendar with almost no gaps at any point. England host Pakistan for three Tests from 19 August, then Sri Lanka for six white-ball matches in September, tour Australia for white-ball cricket in November, and head to South Africa in December for a three-format tour running into February, before a two-Test trip to Bangladesh.
If Brook takes on all three captaincies simultaneously, he would be doing so through a year with barely a week’s break between formats, precisely the workload that wore down every predecessor who tried it. The Harry Brook England Test captaincy series decision, whenever it lands, will effectively be a bet on whether one player can do what Dhoni, Kohli and Rohit all eventually couldn’t.
Do you think Brook should take all three formats, or follow Stokes’s model instead? Drop your take in the comments.
FAQs
Who is the current England Test cricket captain in 2026?
As of writing, England’s Test captaincy is undecided. Joe Root led the side on an interim basis for the final two Tests of the New Zealand series, with Harry Brook now the leading candidate.
Why did Ben Stokes retire from international cricket?
Stokes announced his retirement during England’s third Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge in June 2026. It came shortly after he was stood down from the previous Test following a breach of team curfew.
Has any cricketer captained all three formats for the same team long-term?
Yes, India’s MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma all held simultaneous Test, ODI and T20I captaincy for multi-year spells. Each eventually stepped back from the Test job, citing workload or poor results.
What formats does Harry Brook currently captain for England?
Harry Brook is England’s ODI and T20I captain, a role he took on in April 2025. He is also the Test vice-captain, putting him in position to inherit all three jobs at once.
When is England’s next Test series after Ben Stokes’s retirement?
England host Pakistan for a three-Test series beginning 19 August 2026, at Headingley in Leeds. It will be the first Test series played under whoever is confirmed as the new permanent captain.
Disclaimer: This blog post reflects the author’s personal insights and analysis. Readers are encouraged to consider the perspectives shared and draw their own conclusions.