Exuding authority but not ostentatiously. The cynosure of all eyes when England are in the field. Often in the slips at the heart of decision-making. Michael Brearley, Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook and Joe Root, who has been reappointed as captain, have stood at first slip – but sometimes elsewhere. Michael Vaughan posted himself at mid-on so he could confer with his bowler. Always appearing to be in control and to have something – usually a fresh bowler – up his sleeve. Jollying the media along and giving them a line.
These are the qualities that have distinguished the best England Test captains of the past 50 years, when I have been covering the team. Curiously, leading from the front is not essential, or rather it was the rule to which Brearley was the exception as he never made a Test hundred.
Winning the Ashes and holding on to them has always been the primary objective of English cricket, and it looks as though it always will be, so long as Test cricket lasts. The one period that was an exception was the 1980s when West Indies set the standard as world champions, and England wanted to compete, but could not, losing 17 Tests while winning none. So Graham Gooch deserves exceptional credit for turning that tide.
Results come first, but there is a consideration for style too, because panache and aggression help to sell the game to the English public.
Here are the England Test captains of my time who have led the side in five or more Tests, the pick of them to be bracketed alongside the best before it, such as Raymond Illingworth, Sir Leonard Hutton, Percy Chapman and Douglas Jardine, who all achieved the hardest feat of winning an Ashes series in Australia.