NASSER HUSSAIN: Make Key DofC, Ponting Test coach and Stokes captain

There has been a lot of talk since England lost in the West Indies about how the Test team move forward — and I’ve been one of a few to say, with a heavy heart, that Joe Root should no longer be in charge.

But make no mistake: the side don’t suddenly get better if Root’s no longer captain. There are deep-rooted problems to be solved in the English red-ball game — from the pitches to the number of divisions in the County Championship, from the type of ball to the standard of coaching.

You can’t always blame county cricket when England are 60 for six yet again; it’s the players who are making a mess of it, after all. But my gut feeling is that the new director of cricket, the new coach and the new captain will have to provide some straight talking, a bit of honesty and plenty of steel.

When Duncan Fletcher took over as coach in 1999, after we’d gone bottom of the rankings, he said to me: ‘We’re not the best side in the world, but we shouldn’t be the worst.’ It’s the kind of bluntness we need now.

Let’s start with the director of cricket, who in my view has to have a good understanding of the grassroots game in this country. He has to understand the issues that are holding our players back. And, most importantly, he has to get the big decisions right.

Look at Andrew Strauss a few years ago. He could have sacked Eoin Morgan as the one-day captain after the disastrous 2015 World Cup, but he stayed with him, then appointed Trevor Bayliss as coach, because he realised the players wanted someone in charge who wasn’t going to be in their face the whole time. The rest is history.

I’ve heard my Sky colleague Rob Key has applied, which would be a big loss for us, because he’s a brilliant broadcaster, but a real gain for English