Following England's latest series defeat in the West Indies, Nasser Hussain discusses Joe Root's future as Test captain, why Ben Stokes could be a potential replacement and what England need to do to move off the bottom of the Test rankings.
Root has been an outstanding ambassador for the game, as a player, as a human being and as a captain. He has been brilliant. You couldn't ask for more in terms of leading the side off the field, with the way he carries himself.
We should be very proud of Root, but the main job as an England captain - as I know and as anyone who has captained the side knows - is to win games of cricket and I'm afraid those wins have dried up.
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His record tells you he is the most successful, in that he has won more games than anyone else as captain, but I think it's one Test they have won in the last 17 and that's just unsustainable and the buck will stop at the captain.
It's not Root's fault they're constantly 50-5, but there have been some poor off the field decisions made. In Ahmedabad, where they played four seamers and it spun from ball one. In Brisbane, batting first on a green top and leaving out both Stuart Broad and James Anderson. In Adelaide, not playing your spinner when it spun square. Then not taking Broad and Anderson to the Caribbean, the two greatest bowlers to have ever played for England.
There have been mistakes that have been made. As a captain, you have to accept that and I personally think it's time to move on. I don't think he has done a shocking job, but I think it's time to make a change.
There are only so many times that you can make the same speech that says we're improving and trying to convince your team you're doing that. You just need to hear a different voice as captain and a different energy to take that side forward. I think that time has probably come at this stage after the West Indies.
Is Root burdened by the captaincy?
I think that was the case with maybe myself or Michael Atherton or Michael Vaughan or Sir Andrew Strauss or some other England captains, that the job got to their batting, but if anything, it has probably made Root a better player.
Root's stats over the past couple of years have been phenomenal and he would be the best Test match player over the last year in world cricket, so I don't think the captaincy has affected his batting in a negative way.
He may well carry on into the summer. We don't know who is going to come in as head coach, director of cricket - there are so many decisions to be made. English cricket at the top is in a bit of flux and turmoil, so who knows who the captain in the next Test match will be.
It's the best job in English cricket, for me, being the England captain, and I admire the fact that he wants to carry on doing it. The easier thing would be to say 'I'm going to walk away, concentrate on batting and focus on becoming the greatest batsman to ever play for England', which he will probably end up doing.
I quite admire the resilience in him that he wants to keep doing the job. I just don't think the reason to not change is that there's nobody else. It's the best job in English cricket and the most important job, but I don't think that's the reason to stay as captain. There's always someone else that can come in and do that job.
Who could be next captain?
The obvious one for me is Ben Stokes. Stokes has a fabulous cricket brain, you just have to look at his innings in the World Cup final and his innings at Headingley against Australia.
The odd occasion he has captained, like the odd time in Australia when Root was off the field, it was noticeable some of the changes he made. He has got a fantastic cricket brain and I think he is a huge presence in that dressing room. When he speaks, people turn and a lot of people in the dressing room admire him and look up to him.
The only thing with Ben is that I don't know where he is off the field at the moment. To do the best job, you need to be in a really good space away from cricket.
He has obviously had his problems, he has had issues, he has been in a difficult place, but he looks like he is enjoying his cricket again. Whoever is director of cricket, jump in your car, get up the A1 and sit down and have a coffee with Ben Stokes, then find out how he is off the field rather than just on it.
How quickly will a captaincy decision be made?
Sometimes it's one job and then everything falls into place, but I don't think you can decide on the captain until you've decided on the director of cricket, because the director of cricket has to decide on the coach. You can't have the director of cricket decide on the captain, as the new coach could come in and want somebody different. There are so many gaps to fill at the moment.
My preference would be sort out the director of cricket, who then decides who is going to be the coach, then sit down together to decide who is going to be the captain. That director of cricket and coach might decide they want Joe Root, which is fine, but put things in place for the first Test match of the summer because our Test match cricket has been woeful.
In the last few years, we've had four players who could arguably get into our greatest Test XI. We've had Anderson, Broad, Root and Stokes, yet with those four cricketers we are sitting bottom of the World Test Championship.
A long time ago, when I took over as captain and we were bottom of the world, Duncan Fletcher turned to me at Lord's and said "you ain't the best side in the world, but you shouldn't be the worst" and that's exactly what this England side needs, a bit of a wake-up call.
They shouldn't be the worst side in the world, but at the moment that's exactly what they are.