England’s newly appointed Test skipper Ben Stokes has revealed that former captain Joe Root will return to his quantity 4 place throughout the upcoming Test collection towards New Zealand.

“I’ve already spoken with Joe. I’ve requested him to return to 4 and I’m going to be at six,” Stokes was quoted as saying by icc-cricket.com.

Stokes plans to bat himself at six and is hoping that prospective players that harbour aspirations of batting in England’s recently frail top and middle-order will give him plenty to ponder by scoring a bulk of runs at the county level ahead of the first Test of the summer against the Kiwis at Lord’s on June 2.

“I now feel I have to follow a lot more of the county games now to see who is scoring runs rather than just checking the Durham score,” Stokes mentioned.

“Wherever Joe bats he will get runs, however his finest place is at 4. Joe will in all probability be averaging 90 now as an alternative of 60 (Root’s common in 2021), so it’ll be good. I really feel him at 4 and me at six provides us a little bit of expertise in that hole. So you may clearly see the place the locations are opening up for folks to place their palms up, it’s three and 5,” he mentioned.

Root batted at number three during England’s most recent Test series against West Indies in the Caribbean but has a far better record for his country when coming in at second-drop.

The former England skipper has an excellent average of 51.27 when batting at number four, which is almost 12 runs greater than his mark (39.67) when batting at three.

The new England captain has already revealed he will hand recalls to veteran duo James Anderson and Stuart Broad, with the likes of Ollie Robinson and Chris Woakes likely to be in the mix to feature alongside first-choice spinner Jack Leach.

“You look at the players who aren’t available through injury — (Mark) Wood, (Jofra) Archer, (Olly) Stone, (Sam) Curran — they’d all be seriously fighting for places,” Stokes mentioned.

“Then you place them amongst Broady (Stuart Broad), Jimmy (Anderson), Woakesy (Chris Woakes)…it’s so thrilling to consider the group we might put on the market if we don’t have any accidents. Unfortunately, we do. We simply have to choose one of the best XI we’ve to select from and I’ll at all times make sure that we do this.”

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