Not here to spy on Kohli’s game, says Woakes
NEWDELHI: It is easy to lose faith in players in the Indian Premier League when the going is not good. England pace bowler Chris Woakes should know, having been kept out by Royal Challengers Bangalore as it has struggled for another season.
The 29-year-old, one of 12 England players playing this IPL, played in RCB’s first five games taking eight wickets, but hasn’t played since his 0/40 on April 21, when Virat Kohli’s side beat Delhi Daredevils.
Since then, RCB have played five games, winning just one.
“We’d liked to have done better, but in certain games we haven’t been quite 100 percent. In a world class competition like IPL, you need to be 100 percent every time, 80 or 90 percent is not going to be quite good enough. Unfortunately that is the position we find ourselves in.”
VIRAT’S SURREY STINT
Woakes is likely to square up against India, and his RCB skipper, as India begin their England tour in July. The Warwickshire player felt Kohli turning out for Surrey will be good for County cricket as much as it will help the India skipper iron out his flaws facing swing bowling. “I am not here to spy on Virat’s weaknesses,” he joked. “But sharing the dressing room with him has been a great experience. We expect some good challenges against him back in England. It is great he is going to play for Surrey, it will not only make the competition stronger, playing against world class players is only good for the County game.”
STOKES WILL FIRE
Woakes is confident his England teammate Ben Stokes, the most expensive buy ahead of IPL 2018, will shake off his patchy form for Rajasthan Royals. He has scored just 174 runs in 11 games at an average of 17.4 and taken three wickets. “Ben Stokes is a world class player ... I will never write him off; he still has four games left, and more if they qualify. If you slip off the game against him, he will punish you.”
However, Woakes doesn’t expect Rishabh Pant to produce another blinder like he did against Sunrisers Hyderabad, scoring 128 not out in a losing cause on Thursday.“It is not nice to bowl at a guy when he is in that sort of form. (But) to play that sort of innings back to back is very difficult,” he said.