Darren Gough has backed Joe Root to remain England 's Test captain, insisting he is "the only man for the job".
Root has come under fire following England's recent defeat to the West Indies, with former skippers Michael Vaughan, Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton all calling for him to relinquish the captaincy. However, Root remains keen to continue in the role, telling BT Sport: "I think I've made it quite clear at the start of this game and throughout this tour, I'm very passionate about trying to take this team forward and I will control what I can.
"I don't think it is ever in your hands completely. I feel like the group are very much behind me, we're doing a lot of really good things and we just need to turn that into results now."
And Gough believes Root is "still the right man to captain England", despite his side winning just one of their last 17 Test matches. "Having been around that group and seeing the influence he has in that dressing room and how people respect him, and knowing the other characters in there, he's the only man for the job," Gough said.
"There's no-one else to do it. And that's not any reason to make sure that he keeps it. But if he's still passionate about doing it and he still thinks he can take them in the right direction, as far as I'm concerned, he is the right man to captain England still.
"Now, it's hard to back it up if you start looking at stats – one win in 17 – very, very difficult. But I think, at this period in time, he's still the right man to captain England."
Gough feels the biggest problem with England's Test side is that there are "players who are not good enough", stating it is "more of a team issue than it is a Joe Root issue". He added: "I've always joked in the past about, 'A captain is only as good as the team'.
"And there are captains that have been labelled great captains because they've won an Ashes series, right? And that will always be because people love those stories. But there have been great captains who have not won Ashes series, great captains.
'You look at the team and the way they're performing, I think it's more of a team issue than it is a Joe Root issue. We've just got to accept that, at this moment, we've got players who are not good enough.
'It's hard to accept but we've got players who are not performing as good as they should be. They're making the same mistakes, time and time again, and they've got to address it."
