Joe Root has described Stephen Fleming's appointment as England Test head coach as a "big reason" for his own desire to return to the captaincy, four years after his resignation.
The ECB confirmed Fleming and Root's new roles on Thursday, succeeding Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes respectively. Rob Key, England's managing director, said Fleming's input had informed the decision to offer Root the captaincy again, with Key suggesting the vacancy had arrived "too soon" for Stokes' vice-captain Harry Brook.
Root worked alongside two permanent head coaches, Trevor Bayliss and Chris Silverwood, during his initial five-year stint as England's captain between 2017 and 2022. Paul Collingwood was in interim charge for his final series, against West Indies in early 2022, and he worked with Brendon McCullum for one Test at The Oval last month in Stokes' absence.
"If I'm being brutally honest, it [Fleming's appointment] was a big reason why I wanted to do it," Root told the ECB. "I'm very excited by the way he sees the game, where he sees us sit as a team, and the work that we have to do to get to where we want to get to. All of that got me very excited about taking this role on.
"I'm very much looking forward to working with him. He's obviously got a wealth of experience and done some amazing things within the game as a player and as a coach, and I'm very much looking forward to the next little while, and us trying to build something pretty special together."
Root has captained England more than anyone else in Test cricket, with a mixed record of 27 wins, 27 defeats and 11 draws. He said that he feels like a "hugely different" person to when he quit the role in 2022, and that he would take inspiration from Stokes and McCullum's leadership.
"The last four years have been the most fun I've had in professional cricket, and a big part of that was down to the way that they got me to see the game, how I fit into that side, and the experiences that we managed to create on and off the field," Root said. "Clearly, the last little while is probably what's fresh in everyone's mind, but you're looking at a four-year period where we did a lot of amazing things. I've taken a lot from that, and I feel it will be a big part of how I want to approach things moving forward as a leader of this team.
"The thing that stands out the most for me is the shift in mindset that was created around how we want to play the game: trying to strip the fear away from things, make sure guys feel that they can really just allow their talent to come out as frequently as possible, and in big moments in games. The more that can happen, the better.
"If we can do that alongside recognising when the right time is to put pressure back on teams, or when the right time is to soak it up and to maybe play situations slightly differently, become a little bit smarter in certain areas, then I think we'll be a very formidable team, and a very difficult team to break down and to beat."
England are expected to pick a squad for their three-match Test series against Pakistan next week, while most of their players are involved in the Hundred. They are only due to have two full training days before the first Test at Headingley on August 19, for which Marcus Trescothick will be interim head coach with Fleming in New Zealand due to family commitments.
"It's always a huge honour to turn up to the start of a Test series and to get your teeth into what will be a really good contest against a good team in Pakistan," Root said. "I'll be very much looking forward to it, and getting all the guys in.
"[The Pakistan series] is going to be slightly different. It's going to be quite tricky. It's a very short turnaround [from the Hundred, which ends on August 16]. So it's going to be important that we start really well in those two days that we have leading into the game."
