Give Joe Root more time before passing judgement - Ashley Giles

Ashley Giles has appealed for Joe Root to be given more time before he is judged as England's Test captain.

While Giles, the managing director of England men's cricket, concedes that Root has been in the job for 34 Tests, he feels that it is only now, with Test cricket gaining more priority in the ECB's planning, that it is fair to start judging him in the role.

In particular, Giles stresses that, until recently, the priority of the England set-up had been success in white-ball cricket and that recent changes both to the coaching staff and to the development systems will take time to take hold.

So while Giles accepts that Root's form with the bat has dipped - he is averaging 39.70 as captain and 27.40 this year - he believes the introduction of Chris Silverwood as England's head coach will ease the burden on Root and allow him to rediscover his best form.

At present, Root has captained England in 14 away Tests. Four of them have resulted in victories - including three in succession over Sri Lanka - and eight have been lost. England have won 13 and lost six of the Tests Root has captained at home.

"Joe is our captain and he takes us forward," Giles said. "The stats would say the captaincy has affected his batting. You can't hide from that.

"So we've got to work with him to make sure his game is in the best shape and he's got time to work on it away from the pressures of captaincy. We want to help him get back to averaging 50-plus and if he's doing that we are going to win games of Test cricket. I am very confident that [the burden] on Joe has changed and Chris is picking up a lot of the slack. I feel their relationship is going very well.

"There is a renewed focus on Test cricket and there are some young players in this team. We are going to make mistakes.

"But it's important that while we have a long-term vision in mind, we are looking at the short-term measures and reflecting and reviewing: do we need to change; how do we get better? We can't just get to the Ashes and see how we go. We've got to keep learning and keep getting better."

In modern times, England captains have been appointed to the job on a permanent basis - rather than for a fixed period - in the belief that the security reduces unsettling speculation and encourages stability.

But that does leave Giles in a slightly tricky position. State that he expects Root to captain into the Ashes in 24 months and he might be accused of complacency; suggest that the appointment will be reviewed and he risks being seen to undermine his captain. As he puts it: "I'm not quite sure what anyone is expecting me to say; 'we'll see how we go'? That's not a great vote of confidence in a captain."

In reality, Root will be given every opportunity and every bit of support with a view to him leading lead England to the Ashes. But if results do not improve, well, you only have to look at the many other departures around the ECB - particularly at Loughborough - since Giles was appointed to know he is not afraid to make tough decisions if he thinks they're necessary.

We're not at that stage now. Both Giles and Silverwood have stressed their desire to reduce Root's workload to allow him to concentrate upon his batting and ensure he is fresh for games. And Giles hopes that changes to the county and pathway systems - including his proposal that Championship games are played during the window created for The Hundred - will help develop players better prepared for Test cricket. Equally, there will be an emphasis on improving the pitches used in county cricket.

It was a message reiterated by England's new head coach, Silverwood, who also suggested the team were at the start of a "new sort of era".

"Behind the scenes we've got to keep trying to strip away the things Joe doesn't have to worry about," Silverwod said. "Making sure that when it comes to practice he's just one of the lads and he's worried about his batting and that's it. We have to help him, talk to him and try to strip pressure away.

"In any form or walk of life, you never stop learning, and we are starting a new sort of era now so I'm going to judge this team on where we are now and where we get to."