Officially Root is rested from the one-day series against Australia, but the mood to regenerate the team after the World Cup and Brendon McCullum taking charge in January makes this a dangerous time for his place in 50-over cricket.

The Australia series is an opportunity for Will Jacks at No3, Harry Brook at four or Jamie Smith to lay claim to Root’s pivotal role in the top order. England have played only two matches, and it is too early to draw any definitive conclusions, but so far Root’s ability to blend seasoned judgment and click at the right time has been missed. England collapsed in the first game from 256 for four and Australia a bowler light to 315 all out, and at Headingley were bowled out for 202 with nearly 10 overs to spare.

There is still room for a touch player in 50-over cricket, one who can accumulate and bat through an innings, allowing the firecrackers to go off around him, especially on pitches that offer something to the bowlers, exactly the kind of surfaces England find tricky, a theme that ran through the better years of the Eoin Morgan era. So far in this series, England have batted as if in third gear from ball one and that is risky against an Australia attack with Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.

England still appear to still be making the same mistake as they did at the 50-over World Cup in India and approaching ODIs like an elongated Twenty20.

Interim head coach, Marcus Trescothick, asked for patience after Saturday’s defeat, and it is clear England are peeved at the overreaction to Brook saying “who cares?” if players are caught on the boundary. “We’re a positive team and we’re going to continue to be aggressive. We care deeply if we get it wrong and we care deeply if we lose games. But we’re trying to remove as much of the fear factor for what we’re trying to do to push the team forward,” said Trescothick.

There have been some good signs and it has to be remembered England are without Jos Buttler as well as Root for this series. Jamie Smith already looks a class act in white-ball cricket, combining the grace of impeccably timed straight drives with the muscle of murderous pulls. Jacob Bethell too has looked good in his two innings so far.