Joe Root can no longer cling on as England Test captain... it’s time to give Ben Stokes a go

After England’s latest grim defeat, Joe Root is hanging on to the England Test captaincy by grim death.

This was a loss as bad as any on England’s winless winter, or through their run of one victory in 17 matches in just over a year. The pain was as much to do with the manner – the top seven combined for 127 runs in 14 innings, at an average of nine – as the margin, a thumping 10 wickets that could have been even worse.

Root’s rhetoric was that one bad day, the third, should not undo positive work on this tour. For those watching, it was all so gruesomely familiar that almost every gain – and it would be wrong to pretend there were not encouraging performances in Antigua and Barbados – was blown away in brutal fashion. At the very moment they had an opportunity to prove they were making tangible strides, they contrived to plumb a new depth.

West Indies, another modest side with an appetite for upsetting England, were resilient enough to pounce, having worn blows in the first two Tests.

England were schooled in the difficulties of playing in the Caribbean, where different islands pose such different challenges. It was fitting that West Indies won in Grenada, where their support was strong, and that captain Kraigg Brathwaite hit the winning runs.

One of the remarkable things about Root is that these desperate defeats do not seem to dim his appetite for the job. The sense of duty is extreme, and admirable. When he spoke yesterday, it was not about going home, talking to his loved ones and considering his future. It was about a desire to carry on. As he said the words, the sense was that he would look back in a decade and recognise that he was clinging on.

This tour was awkward, stuck between eras. The Ashes defeat blew