Joe Root, left, and Ben Stokes have played 119 Tests together

How many times have England needed Root to dig them out of a hole? Close your eyes and you can picture it. Two wickets down, next to no runs on the board, Root striding down the steps and stretching at the boundary's edge before sprinting halfway to the crease.

And now this. An SOS to England's greatest ever batter to clean up the mess made in a London nightclub.

On the day Harry Brook replaced his fellow Yorkshireman at the top of the Test batting rankings, it is not the vice-captain England have asked to step in as interim captain, but the former skipper.

The investigation into Ben Stokes' actions in the early hours of Monday morning has left England with a very specific set of circumstances.

If Stokes was ruled out of the second Test against New Zealand at The Oval next week because of an injury, it seems likely Brook would have been given the job.

Despite his misdemeanours in the winter, Brook retained the captaincy of the limited-overs team and led them to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup. He will be England captain next month for the white-ball series against India.

Yet to have a situation where one captain is out of the team because of an incident in a nightclub, only to be replaced by another captain who eight months ago was punched outside a nightclub in Wellington, would have been absurd.

Stokes out of England squad, Root named captain

Stokes should not be sacked as captain – Vaughan

What does Root make of it all? It is worth remembering he was largely distanced from the boozing in Noosa, the sole England player to have his family present on the mid-Ashes series holiday.

Does Root ever look around the dressing room, which he once shared with the likes of Alastair Cook, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, and wonder how he has become the one grown-up left?

His 13,952 Test runs have not just appeared out of the Yorkshire ether. They are the product of 14 years of dedication, desire and diligence.

And he has done his time as England captain. Five years and 64 matches – more than any other man to hold the office.

It is a job that can leave a cricketer feeling twice as old and half as happy, and there was a sense the crown never really sat comfortably on Root's head.

He bucked a trend when his own batting form improved while the team fell apart around him. Root later explained that being alone at the crease was the only time he felt like he was getting any peace.

By the end, after one win in 17 matches and a traumatic Covid-affected Ashes tour of Australia, Root was done.

There would have been absolutely no desire to go through any of it again. Root would have been well within his rights to tell England to jog on when his name arose as a potential solution to this latest crisis.

But Root is Root. A nicer human being you could not wish to meet. Is this a sense of duty to his team? To his country? His great mate Stokes?

Ben Stokes and Joe Root won a Test in Australia together for the first time in December

From meeting as teenagers, Root and Stokes have been together for every significant moment in English cricket in the past decade and more.

The implosion of a team during the 5-0 Ashes drubbing in 2013-14, and the rebuild to regain the urn in 2015 – the last time England beat Australia.

The 2019 World Cup and Stokes' Headingley miracle of the same year. Covid and Bazball. Winning as darkness fell in Rawalpindi and losing by one run in Wellington. The Jonny Bairstow stumping and the Heist of Hyderabad. The latest Ashes debacle.

They have been there for each other, too. Stokes' peak was under Root's captaincy, so too was the Bristol incident that almost cost the all-rounder his career.

There was an emotional phone call between the two in the summer of 2021, when Stokes took a break from the game. A year later, when Root relinquished the captaincy, Stokes was there with what he called "love, respect and support".

England have described the arrangement for the second Test as "interim", and its impermanence seems important.

On Monday, when it first emerged that Stokes and Gus Atkinson were in hot water, there was an immediate feeling it would spell the end of Stokes' captaincy.

It still may. There is an ongoing investigation. Stokes could decide to walk.

But, with every passing hour, the temperature is cooling. Stokes could return for the third Test at Trent Bridge or, more likely, the series against Pakistan later in the summer.

Still, Stokes has given a window into what England's life might be without him. For the first time in his career, Stokes the cricketer is not indispensable. Earlier this week, head coach Brendon McCullum had to defend his batting, and back Stokes to return to form.

If Brook had been put in charge, England may have seen something they like. Brook and McCullum seemed more aligned during the T20 World Cup than Stokes and McCullum did during the Ashes.

Brook would have been captaining his peers, whereas Stokes leads a group of younger men, many of whom grew up idolising him. Maybe England would have found a Stokesless formation that makes them stronger: the leg-spin of Rehan Ahmed as the all-rounder, followed by four specialist seamers.

None of this becomes an issue with Root in charge. He will be all too happy to hand over the reins when the time comes.

These roles were once reversed. In the Covid summer of 2021, Stokes stepped in for one Test while Root was on paternity leave. Root left a note on Stokes' peg in the dressing room which said: "Do it your way".

Now, Root will do it his way. Clapping his hands from first slip, long sprints to talk to his bowlers. A smile on his face, maybe a classic Rootian century. Not the puffed-out chest of an alpha like Stokes, just the calm reassurance of English cricket's most dependable presence.

Once again, it is Joe Root riding to England's rescue.

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The siblings of Sara Sharif – the 10-year-old murdered by her father and stepmother – will stay in Pakistan after Surrey County Council said it had no choice but to withdraw from a legal case to return them to the UK.

The five children have been living with their paternal grandfather in Jhelum since October 2023.

But a decision regarding who will get final custody and which country the children should live in has been the focus of a series of stop-start court battles in Pakistan over two-and-a-half years.

The children, who are all in school apart from the youngest, were made wards of court in England and the council had been trying to bring them back through the courts in Pakistan.

Their grandfather has been fighting for them to stay with him.

A spokesperson for Surrey County Council told the BBC the council has no ability to pursue the application in Pakistan, as English proceedings are coming to an end.

The final decision about who has final custody is still pending, but either current option would mean the children remain in Pakistan.

The grandfather's lawyer has said that as the children retain joint nationality and that they can return to the UK if they choose in the future.

It has been nearly three years since 10-year-old Sara Sharif's body was found in a house in Woking on 10th August 2023.

By then, her father, Urfan Sharif, and stepmother, Beinash Batool and her uncle, Faisal Malik had taken the five children and fled to Pakistan.

The family disappeared for several weeks and a relative of Urfan Sharif told the BBC that he helped the family evade the police, including hiding them in a corn field when police raided the property.

On 11 September 2023 the children were found when police raided Urfan's father's house in Jhelum.

They were initially put into a childcare facility, but in October 2023 their grandfather was given temporary custody.

The adults returned to the UK on 13 September 2023 and were arrested on their arrival at Gatwick airport.

Sara's father and stepmother were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Her uncle was found guilty of causing or allowing her death and sentenced to 16 years in prison. The judge said that the cruelty involved was "almost inconceivable".

After Sara's death, her siblings were made wards of court and an English court ordered that they should be returned to England.

Surrey County Council has been fighting a case which has resulted in long legal arguments about whether they have any jurisdiction in Pakistan over the children.

The BBC has attended the court in Pakistan on more than a dozen occasions. In that time, the case has been delayed without being heard on multiple occasions, heard in part, restarted with a new judge and twice suspended over the summer recess.

The eldest of the siblings, who is now a teenager, has attended the vast majority of these cases.

At a recent hearing, the judge said that the questions raised were "very important". However, the Pakistan courts have never given an answer regarding Surrey council's jurisdiction over the children.

The hearings about the children in the UK have been held in private but the BBC attended many of the hearings.

In a court order from December 2025, the judge states that wardship proceedings relating to the children would be dismissed in six months if there was no application to extend them and that the children were no longer in the care and control of Surrey council.

In a statement, Terence Herbert, the council's chief executive, said it "has done everything within our power to support the siblings and half siblings of Sara Sharif in Pakistan".

He added: "The children were made Wards of the High Court and an Order was sought to return the children to England.

"The High Court gave permission for the council to make an application to the High Court in Lahore to seek to secure the return of the children and that application was made.

"The English court proceedings are about to come to an end, which means the Pakistan Proceedings in Lahore have concluded."

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Violence and disorder broke out in the streets of Belfast after a knife attack on Monday night.

The victim, Stephen Ogilvy, lost his left eye in the attack, Belfast Magistrates' Court heard. The suspected attacker, Hadi Alodid, has been remanded in custody for four weeks after being charged with attempted murder, threats to kill an NHS radiographer and possession of a knife.

BBC Verify has mapped out some of the violent disorder that took place across the city, and elsewhere in Northern Ireland. Videos show masked men walking down the streets, shops and homes attacked and bins and buses set on fire. Merlyn Thomas reports.

Produced by Aisha Sembhi. Graphics by Mark Edwards and Leo Scutt-Richter. Additional reporting by Thomas Copeland.

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