Former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott criticized Joe Root’s leadership during England’s defeat to New Zealand in the second Test at The Oval, saying the captain in his place appeared to have learned “nothing” from his previous spell in charge. Boycott also welcomed the return of Ben Stokes for the third Test, saying England needed to get back on top.Stokes missed the second Test while an investigation was carried out into his and Gus Atkinson’s alleged involvement in a nightclub altercation with a rugby player following England’s victory in the first Test. Root was handed the captaincy ahead of vice-captain Harry Brook. England played three debutants in the match and suffered a 253-run defeat, which became Root’s 27th loss as Test captain.The England and Wales Cricket Board later confirmed that Stokes will return for the third Test. The council said Stokes and Atkinson received written warnings after being found guilty of breaching contractual obligations.Writing for The Telegraph, Boycott said: “Thank heavens Ben Stokes will be leading England back at Trent Bridge because it looked like Joe Root had learned nothing from his last stint as England captain.”He also praised Root’s batting while questioning his captain.“Now that Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson have retired from Test match cricket, Root is the undisputed best batsman in the world. What a wonderful thing to be able to say about a smashing boy that everyone likes, including me. But having praised his batting, I am not pleased to say that it does not make sense for the captain as we have seen,” he added at the Oval.Boycott pointed to Root’s management of Jofra Archer, saying it reminded him of England’s 2019 tour of New Zealand, when Archer was asked to bowl long spells and spend extended periods bowling short deliveries.“Captainship is a gift and a good leader has a natural intuition of which bowl and which field to set for different batsmen,” wrote Boycott. “You can’t read in a book, but you can learn by watching the captains of the opposition all over the world. Sometimes it’s intuition or luck and occasionally when you have a man who is lucky and good, then you have an exceptionally successful leader. Stokes is very good to handle Jofra Archer while Joe seemed to make the same mistakes he did at the Oval as he added when he understood in England.Boycott was particularly critical of Archer’s workload late on opening day.“It was crazy that Joe was asking him to bowl a spell of eight at the end of the first day at the Oval with numerous short balls aimed at New Zealand batsman Glenn Phillips and the tail-enders,” wrote Boycott.