The best way Joe Root can silence doubters about his captaincy is to go and score runs, according to former England star Steve Harmison.
Root had an average summer, by his lofty standards, where he failed to score a Test match century during the Ashes.
Australia retained the Ashes as the series was drawn 2-2 leading to some questions over his England captaincy.
The 28-year-old hit a double century against New Zealand in a welcome return to form and Harmison said the captaincy will take care of itself if he carries on scoring in South Africa, with commentary of the series exclusively live on talkSPORT 2.
Harmison told talkSPORT: “He needs to score runs. That’s it. I’ve never had a problem with Joe Root’s captaincy. The issues with Joe Root was he had to go and bat three because his country needed him to bat three. We needed someone to steady the ship.
“If Joe Root gets hundreds then there a good chance England will win the Test match. If he can go back to scoring runs England have a better chance of winning Test matches.
“His captaincy will look after itself. If England consistently get bowled out for 250, Mike Brearley, Michael Vaughn, Andrew Strauss it doesn’t matter if they were in charge as you wouldn’t win Test matches.
“If Joe Root can get a hundred in the first innings of a Test match England can get in excess of 400 then it is a lot easier to captain. I’ve never had a problem with Joe Root the captain and it is a case of Joe Root the batsman getting runs.”
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Harmison also thinks it is a good time to play South Africa as they are a side in transition with several players selected in their squad for the first time.
Fast bowlers Dan Paterson and Beuran Hendricks will bolster their attack in the absence of injured Lungi Ngidi.
Pieter Malan and Rassie Van Der Dussen are new batsmen and they will be joined by all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius and wicketkeeper Rudi Second.
England's tour of South Africa 2019/20
Every ball of the series will be live across the talkSPORT network
- 1st Test, Centurion – December 26-30
- 2nd Test, Cape Town – January 3-7
- 3rd Test, Port Elizabeth – January 16-20
- 4th Test, Johannesbury – January 24-28
- 1st ODI, Cape Town – February 4
- 2nd ODI, Durban – February 7
- 3rd ODI, Johannesbury – February 9
- 1st T20, East London – February 12
- 2nd T20, Durban – February 14
- 3rd T20, Centurion – February 16
Harmison added: “England getting off to a decent start will be the decisive factor. South Africa are in a bit of disarray with six new members in their 16 man squad. They have possibly only two or three who will play but have new members coming in and England need to put them under pressure.
“There’s a new regime in South Africa and there’s been a lot of talk about it so there will be pressure on the players to perform because of Graeme Smith, Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis being involved. Great players but they are not playing for South Africa but just coaching.
“There could be a little bit of pressure on the players from that point of view.”
Former captain smith has taken over as interim director of cricket while Boucher was recently appointed as head coach.
Kallis has joined South Africa’s backroom staff as a batting consultant for the summer.