'In emergency, break glass' - England seek stability in Root

How many times have England needed Root to dig them out of a hole? Close your eyes and you can picture it. Two wickets down, next to no runs on the board, Root striding down the steps and stretching at the boundary's edge before sprinting halfway to the crease.

And now this. An SOS to England's greatest ever batter to clean up the mess made in a London nightclub.

On the day Harry Brook replaced his fellow Yorkshireman at the top of the Test batting rankings, it is not the vice-captain England have asked to step in as interim captain, but the former skipper.

The investigation into Ben Stokes' actions in the early hours of Monday morning has left England with a very specific set of circumstances.

If Stokes was ruled out of the second Test against New Zealand at The Oval next week because of an injury, it seems likely Brook would have been given the job.

Despite his misdemeanours in the winter, Brook retained the captaincy of the limited-overs team and led them to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup. He will be England captain next month for the white-ball series against India.

Yet to have a situation where one captain is out of the team because of an incident in a nightclub, only to be replaced by another captain who eight months ago was punched outside a nightclub in Wellington, would have been absurd.

What does Root make of it all? It is worth remembering he was largely distanced from the boozing in Noosa, the sole England player to have his family present on the mid-Ashes series holiday.