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England v Pakistan: A huge challenge, but Joe Root can finish captaincy story

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England captain Joe Root trains at Headingley

Covid destroyed Root’s team, and there are other reasons why Root might also feel he didn’t get a fair shake first time around. His tenure as captain coincided with a prioritisation of white-ball cricket and, when he stood in for Stokes against New Zealand in June, he admitted to some envy at not getting the chance to work alongside McCullum.

Not that everything went against Root. One could argue that, given the players at his disposal, he should have had a better record as captain.

Peak Stokes, England’s two greatest bowlers in James Anderson and Stuart Broad, plus the luxury of further all-rounders Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali. Root did not get to lead the best version of Alastair Cook, but the late-career Sir Chef would improve the current England team.

Root may feel he is better placed to captain England now, yet he is taking over if not a worse, then certainly a much more inexperienced team. Perhaps he will find this group easier to mould in his image. In his first Test as captain, in 2017, Root was the third-youngest player in the XI. In 2026, at the age of 35, he is comfortably the oldest.

For plenty of supporters the main worry will be the possibility of a detrimental effect the captaincy could have on Root’s batting, and it is true that his average with the armband – 46.7 – is some way off his stellar career mark of 53.3.

That discrepancy is mainly because of a poor run in the middle of his first stint as skipper. Root averaged 37 in 2019, the year before things started going wrong for England during Covid.

In 2021, mid-pandemic and with the team falling apart, Root racked up 1,708 runs – the most by any England batter in a calendar year. He later explained that batting, being in the middle, was the only time he got any peace.

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Root remains England’s best player. Since the beginning of the Bazball era, he has scored almost 1,000 more Test runs than any other batter in the world. In the same period, he has moved second on the all-time list of run-scorers, with Sachin Tendulkar now in his sights.

Catchin’ Sachin is the sub-plot to Root’s second stint as captain, and he is adamant he can juggle the jobs of leadership and run-scoring.

His job as a leader will be to mould a group of players whose education in Test cricket was hampered by the informal approach of Stokes and McCullum. That point about Stokes not leaving the England squad in a better place than he found it? Root’s team have questions about an opener and wicketkeeper, a makeshift number three, no obvious all-round option and are without a world-class spinner.

England start as favourites against a Pakistan team that has not won a series in this country in 30 years and will be without their own captain in Leeds, the injured Babar Azam.

Pakistan have, however, played more Tests in July and August than England – a 1-1 draw against West Indies. In seamer Mohammad Abbas and spinner Sajid Khan, they have bowlers who have caused England trouble in the past. If the tourists can get enough runs, it will be a competitive series.

After this, it gets very difficult for England. The winter includes trips to South Africa and Bangladesh, and a one-off pink-ball shootout against Australia.

Speaking of the Aussies, they will surely be better than they showed in defeat by Bangladesh when they arrive for the Ashes next summer. After that, England go to India in early 2028. It all adds up to a devilishly difficult first 18 months of Root’s second tenure.

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For all his runs, records, and milestones, perhaps rebuilding this England team in the face of the tasks ahead represents one of the greatest challenges of his storied career.

On top of that, Root has acknowledged the work his team have to do to rebuild their reputation with the public after a string of off-field misdemeanours. “Be good role models and good human beings,” he has said to his players.

They should look no further than their captain for an example, for Root is one of the best.

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US Open 2026 results: Aryna Sabalenka’s win over Kamilla Rakhimova interrupted by cannabis smell

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Aryna Sabalenka celebrates beating Kamilla Rakhimova at the US Open

American third seed Jessica Pegula kept her bid for a first Grand Slam title alive by coming from a set down to beat Leylah Fernandez.

Pegula, who lost the final at Flushing Meadows two years ago to Sabalenka, came through 1-6 6-4 6-3 against the Canadian 31st seed.

Fernandez showed glimpses of the form that took her to the 2021 US Open final, where she lost to Emma Raducanu, as she raced through the first set in under 30 minutes.

But Pegula played with more patience to secure the decisive break at the end of the second set – albeit with some help from a net cord.

She saved two break points at the start of the deciding set, before breaking in the next game and going on to see out victory with a backhand volley.

“I wasn’t moving my feet up to the ball, and I was a little lazy to start off,” Pegula, 32, said.

“I was going to have to dig deep. I’m glad I was able to find somewhere there in the second set to turn it around.”

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Pegula will play Romanian 16th seed Sorana Cirstea in the fourth round after she beat Italian 19th seed Jasmine Paolini 6-3 6-3.

Later, Czech seventh seed Muchova lost 6-3 7-5 to American 26th seed Navarro.

Muchova had been competing in her first tournament since undergoing minor surgery after reaching July’s Wimbledon final.

Navarro will play Ukrainian ninth seed Elina Svitolina or Russian 21st seed Anna Kalinskaya in the fourth round.

Ukrainian 11th seed Marta Kostyuk is also safely though to the last-16 after beating Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-3 6-2.

In the women’s doubles, Britons Harriet Dart and Maia Lumsden ousted Croatia’s Petra Marcinko and Ukraine’s Oleksandra Oliynykova 7-5 6-3 to reach the second round.

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Pierre Gasly loses Monaco podium after McLaren and Red Bull win appeals

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Pierre Gasly's Alpine approaches the hairpin during the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix

The discrepancy between the official F1 measurement and the possible shorter distance did not mean that the official measurement was incorrect, the court said.

While it was concluded after the race that a shorter line was possible, the court of appeal ruled that “sporting fairness absolutely precludes the retrospective replacement” of an established calibration parameter “by a different geometric or measurement approach for the purpose of re-adjudicating an individual competitor’s result”.

The controversy arose from the fact that there was a 77-centimetre discrepancy between the officially measured distance of the pit lane and the real shortest route a driver could take.

It was established at Alpine’s appeal in June that Gasly had not exceeded the pit-lane speeding limit by this new measurement, which was why the penalty was overturned.

However, McLaren appealed on the grounds of sporting fairness and their own competitive interests, as Piastri had lost two points as a consequence of the situation.

The Australian was one of several drivers who did serve a five-second pit-lane speeding penalty.

The court of appeal verdict rests on the following conclusions:

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  • F1 is designated by the FIA to measure the pit-lane speed limit, which is applied by “average speed over the relevant timing sector rather than instantaneous speed”.

  • The distance applied should be the same for each car.

  • Although it was later established that Gasly never exceeded the 60km/h limit over a shorter distance it was possible to take, the “benchmark cannot be retrospectively displaced for one competitor after the competition has been conducted against it”.

  • Although F1 concluded after the event that a shorter distance, measured by a different method, meant it should have selected a different line for its calculation, that did not mean the original calculation was inaccurate of itself.

  • The pit-lane length applied “was physically tape-measured, checked before being entered, used throughout free practice sessions and the race, specifically re-examined when concerns were raised before the race, and reconfirmed again during the race when the stewards sought reassurance. At no point did F1 advise the competitors, race control or the stewards that a different distance parameter should apply”.

  • “The enforcement regime… is workable only if the benchmark against which all competitors calibrate is common, stable and applied equally throughout the competition”.

  • “Once the official timekeeper has established and adopted the distance parameter used… and competitors have been required to calibrate their cars and conduct the competition by reference to that common parameter, sporting fairness and equal treatment require that the parameter remains fixed”.

Alpine said in a statement: “While we disagree with the decision, and still fully maintain that car 10 (Gasly) did not exceed the pit-lane speed limit at any point during the race, the team acknowledges the decision of the judging panel from the recent hearing in Paris.

“While the result is not what we had hoped for, as we feel that we have been unjustly punished, the team is firmly focused on continuing to improve its performance on track and remains in a close and very competitive championship fight.”

McLaren said: “We welcome the decision of the FIA international court of appeal, a decision which provides important clarity for teams and all the sport’s stakeholders and helps protect the integrity of the sport and trust in its regulatory framework.

“Our appeal was not directed at any competitor or at the FIA. It was brought, and pursued to its conclusion, in the interests of the sport and to support the consistent and fair application of the regulations for all participants.”

The court of appeal did not address the question of whether the pit-lane speeding penalties awarded to Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, Russell and Piastri were correct under the established measurement, or whether their cars ever physically exceeded the 60km/h limit.

That was not relevant to the bounds of the hearing, which was to address McLaren’s and Red Bull’s protest against the decision to rescind Gasly’s penalty.

Mercedes also contend that Russell never exceeded 60km/h. He was running ahead of Hadjar and Gasly before his first penalty.

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He was demoted out of the points because Mercedes failed to correctly serve the penalty at a subsequent pit stop. That offence earned a drive-through penalty which dropped him to 12th place.

Alpine say they have sent the trophy for third place over to Red Bull’s Milton Keynes base, and that they are considering their options as to whether to take the case further.

Their only remaining likely course of action, should they wish to pursue it, would be to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

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Harry Kane: Europe’s top scorer plays like a midfielder – we asked him to break down his game

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A stylistic collage of Harry Kane, the Ballon d'Or and Vincent Kompany

“Over the last five or six years, man-to-man pressure has become bigger,” Kane says.

“European football is physical and top teams are trying to win the ball back high, trusting their defenders and midfielders to defend man for man to win their battles.”

Given that change, the best teams have recruited physical athletes and brilliant dribblers who can beat their man when the game becomes a series of one-against-ones.

Kane, not known for his dribbling – and by his own admission “not the fastest”, has thrived on his own terms.

Against Dortmund, there was a specific moment Kane dropped deep, looking to arrive in space unmarked. Recognising the danger, two players converged on the Englishman.

Kane’s dribbling is cerebral. His speed of thought provides him solutions to problems others would attempt to solve with their feet alone.

After getting low and using his strength to shrug centre-back Waldemar Anton off him, Kane rose, slightly adjusting his body to the right. These micro-adjustments are a hallmark of his game and through them he is able to shift an entire team’s momentum.

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Fooled by this feint, Daniel Svensson and Jobe Bellingham found themselves wrong-footed as Kane snapped the ball back the other way, opening up the entire pitch from within Bayern’s half.

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