In reply to ianstevens:
As a reductionist rule of thumb, newly minted captains either (a) relish the challenge and increase their average for a period of 1-3 years before starting to wane away as the pressure builds and opportunties to 'decompress' become increasingly rare, or (b) have a 'mare and just grind on until they resign or get ousted, as they rarely flourish late on in a captaincy career.
Root I think is likely to be in the former camp - his previous captaincy experience has been slim and a while ago (and not particularly good!) but he has some wise heads in the team around him and seems able to shrug off most issues quite well - a certain teflon coating is always handy in test cricket. Compare him to Kane Williamson: not a dissimilar batsman but much less animated and involved. KW is so 'in his bubble' it's not always clear that he's noticed he's the captain, and that others will look to him for leadership (see also Ross Taylor as opposed to Brendan McCullum).
I think JR will play nicely for about 2 years and then, as usual, the press will get bored and start saying "he's gone without a big score for x matches and the pressure is building" - which is always an excellent way to build pressure when there really isn't any. The big thing in his favour is that he won't be subjected to the constant "bring back KP" harping that Cook had to endure through little fault of his own.
b
