No amount of time spent in the company of his predecessor during the past five years will have prepared him for the way in which his own life will now become the property of everyone else. More so even than Michael Atherton, Stewart will be in the dock, at the mercy, strangely, of his own excellence.
Supreme cricketer that Stewart has become, and notwithstanding the brazen, infectious way in which he wears the George and Dragon, the wisdom of his appointment will always be open to argument due to its compromise. He is an opening batsman who is not going to open the batting; he is a wicketkeeper because the country cannot find an all-rounder worthy of the name, or apparently another wicketkeeper; he is a captain who was moved aside by his county and replaced by another captain who has found the leadership of the England one-day team demanding enough for his re-election to be in doubt; and he is a sometime paragon of virtue prone to momentary and unattractive indiscretion - imagine the hullabaloo if Alec slips a South African the two-finger farewell. Image is irrelevant, said Atherton; image is crucial, says Lord MacLaurin.
Image, which is neither crucial nor irrelevant, depends mainly on winning. Image would not be much of a conversation if the Ashes came home or if the Wisden Trophy was safely on the shelf.
A vivid, revealing memory of last summer was of Mark Taylor standing on the balcony at the Oval and lifting the little urn for the photographers. He was unshaven, as he mostly is on playing days, and was dressed in a baggy blue T-shirt. But he says all the right things - without ever actually saying much in fact - and looks as though he is enjoying himself.
To get the image goat of an Australian, you've got to behave like a true hooligan - or like Shane Warne after the Ashes were secured at Trent Bridge, and even he was quickly forgiven - unless of course you are losing and then the tears of Kim Hughes and the tantrums of Allan Border become the subject of humiliation.
We like a bit of humiliation here too, but more usually we just nibble away at the weaknesses of our top dogs, undermining their character and diluting their confidence. It was extraordinary that Atherton withstood the nibbling for so long, remarkable indeed how often he turned it for his own effect. But in the end his team kept losing so the indifference to image, which was his Achilles' heel, finally knocked him over.
If England don't win under Stewart, it will not matter that he is a natty dresser or that he is regular with his razor because the vultures will nail him like they have nailed all the others. What he can do, which Atherton oddly could not, is lighten his team up a bit and change their tone from blind insularity to greater approachability, a little charm and plenty of self-expression.
Stewart's own abrasiveness and the moments of sharp practice that are inherent in him will need watching but the extrovert in his personality is a strong suit and must not be diminished by the demand for cleanliness. The England team needs to puff its chest out a bit and to confront the opposition with self-belief, and since no one could accuse the new captain of being withdrawn there must be a chance that the team will reflect the Stewart style.
In England's very best team, Stewart must open the batting - a point conceded by the selectors before the tour to the Caribbean but now retracted by making him captain as well as wicketkeeper - and I am certain that he still can, now that Mark Butcher has been chosen (or better still had it been the versatile, eager Nick Knight). If England bat first, or if their innings begins at the start of a day's play, Stewart should open, and Butcher, as he did successfully in Trinidad, should bat at six. If not, or if for any other reason of captaincy distraction, Stewart cannot immediately focus on batting, then Butcher should open and Stewart bat at four after Nasser Hussain, who ought to bat at three.
This is the compromise but so is the whole Stewart issue. What must be understood and will need patience in analysis is that the new England captain is a victim of his own capabilities. If those capabilities do not function individually as well as they might, it would be best to examine why so much is asked from him and when the clear answer is agreed upon do something about the breeding ground that fails to provide enough world-class English cricketers.
The Stewart issue is a clear message. Enough said.