England v West Indies: Harry Brook has no captaincy ambitions ‘soon’

Their next white-ball series, at home to Australia in September, begins the day after the final Test against Sri Lanka ends and runs to the time when the Test squad would depart for the tour of Pakistan in October.

Similarly, the white-ball tour of West Indies in November is sandwiched between the Test series in Pakistan and New Zealand.

It means Test players like Brook, Test vice-captain Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley, who captained the one-day side last summer, would be incredibly unlikely to be available.

If Buttler is replaced, it would leave current vice-captain Moeen Ali as a potential candidate, but he is 37 and unlikely to have the job for the long term. Sam Curran and Will Jacks are other members of the white-ball squad who could captain, perhaps on a short-term basis.

And Brook said he will prioritise Test cricket, saying the longest format is “top of my list”.

“I want to play every Test match I can for England,” said Brook, who made his first home hundred in the defeat of West Indies in the second Test at Trent Bridge.

“Test cricket is my priority. I don’t want to think too far ahead. The Ashes is a long way away and we have a lot of Test cricket before then. My main focus is to stay in the moment and not get ahead of myself.”

The Superchargers captaincy will be a first senior skipper’s job for Brook, a former England Under-19 captain. He will link up with Andrew Flintoff, the former England all-rounder in a head coach role for the first time.

“Fred just asked me if I wanted to be captain, he thought I’d do a decent job, so we’ll see how we go,” said Brook.

“I’ll be a fairly chilled captain. We’ve said that all training will be optional. There’s nothing put on you as a player. Just be chilled, relaxed, go out there and express yourself and play.”