Broad plays down England captaincy links

Stuart Broad has distanced himself from potentially taking over from Joe Root as England Test captain and instead appeared to back Ben Stokes for the job.

The fast bowler was, along with James Anderson, controversially left out of the squad for the recent tour to the West Indies which ended in a 1-0 series defeat and proved to be the last of Root's five years as skipper.

Broad, who has captained England in both T20 and one-day international cricket, is one of the names mooted as a potential successor to Root following his resignation on Friday. However, writing in his Mail On Sunday column, the 35-year-old insisted his sole focus was getting back into the England team and instead mentioned Stokes.

"Naturally, I am aware that my name has been touted as a potential successor to Joe as England captain and I guess that is because I am an experienced centrally contracted player who has been around the international game a long time," Broad wrote.

"However, it is not something I have given any thought to because firstly I am not currently in possession of a shirt within the England Test team and my focus is very much on changing that by taking wickets for Nottinghamshire over the next few weeks.

"In fact, I would argue we are in a fairly unique position as far as selection for the Test team goes right now in that there are only two players whose names you could write in pen on the scorecard.

"One of them is Joe Root, the other is Ben Stokes - and one of them isn't going to be captain for the first Test of the summer against New Zealand at Lord's on June 2 because he has just given the job away."

Broad, who is yet to feature for Nottinghamshire in this year's County Championship, has played 152 Test matches for England since