Woakes could bring order to Ashes bid
REPORTS GIVEN Plan A was not exactly met with universal acclaim when the Ashes squad was announced on Wednesday, Plan B will almost certainly fill no one but Australians with confidence. disappointment on his part when he was dropped, for Toby Roland-Jones, after the defeat at Headingley given it was his first Test back. But while he batted well in the second innings of that match, his bowling looked distinctly ring-rusty. However, he has started to find some rhythm in the one-day series and looked close to his best at the Oval on Wednesday night. When he has been fit, Woakes provides a significant threat with both new and old ball and is arguably the best No9 in Test cricket. The figures would back that up with only Woakes and Stokes in the England set-up able to boast higher averages with bat than ball – Stokes at 35.72 and 33.93, and Woakes at 32.14 and 30.60.
If Woakes remains the nearest like-for-like replacement then perhaps the best place for him would be in Stokes’ position, leaving Bairstow and Moeen in the places where they feel at home and making space for either Jake Ball or Craig Overton – or Mark Wood, if he can prove his fitness with the Lions – to come in as the fourth seamer. Woakes has never played a Test in Australia but in ODIs he has 16 wickets in 10 matches, including 6-45 at Brisbane and 4-40 at Sydney.
He is a better bowler now than when finding South African pitches hard going in 2015-16 as well. And he is a better batsman, averaging incident in Bristol in the early hours of Monday, September 25.
“These decisions, fully supported by ECB Chairman Colin Graves, were made following the release of footage viewed by ECB for the first time on Wednesday night.”
The ECB’s cricket discipline commission, chaired by Tim O’Gorman, will consider the cases of Stokes and Hales and recommend whether any further action should be taken.
Fines, suspension and even the loss of their central contracts are among the penalties available to the ECB.
The more immediate outcome, however, is that they will not figure in the final match of the Royal London One-Day Series against West Indies at Southampton today.
Stokes was not expected to play at the Ageas Bowl but, up until the publication of the footage of the incident, opener Hales, right, was down to play.
Coach Trevor Bayliss had insisted he had every faith the batsman was able to concentrate on his cricket despite his part in the incident in the early hours of last Monday, after which Stokes was arrested and a 27-year-old man was hospitalised with facial injuries. Bayliss also maintained this week has been as bad an experience as anything he has had more than 40 in the past two years.
Last time England went Down Under they played at Brisbane and Adelaide with just three seamers – using two spinners in the second Test – before resorting to the more reliable seam of Tim Bresnan for Perth and Melbourne and then Boyd Rankin in Sydney.
For all his improvement with the ball, Moeen does not offer the sort of control that Graeme Swann did, which makes going with three seamers unlikely.
Even in 2013-14 with Swann in the team – albeit as a declining force who announced his retirement after the third Test – they lost 5-0 and while Stokes’ absence would tilt the advantage in Australia’s favour, it might provide Woakes with a platform to step up to the plate.
When fit he is a threat with new ball and old
to deal with in cricket apart from coming under armed attack by terrorists in the team bus in Lahore when he was coach of Sri Lanka in 2009.
“It’s probably in the top two I would have thought,” he said. “It’s very difficult for everyone involved. It’s something we didn’t want to go through and hope we don’t go through again.”
Stokes, 26, could lose the Test vicecaptaincy following the incident, which came after England had won the third ODI of the current series in Bristol.
The all-rounder was released without charge but remains under investigation while Hales, 28, returned voluntarily to Bristol on Tuesday to provide police with further evidence. Dawid Malan, who was also named in the Ashes squad, has been drafted in to the ODI squad for today’s game in place of Hales. England have already clinched the series 3-0 and the match is the last of the domestic international season.
ON THE final day of the county season yesterday, Middlesex were relegated when they lost to Somerset – 12 months after winning the Championship. Hampshire’s battling draw against Warwickshire sealed Middlesex’s fate. Worcestershire pipped Nottinghamshire to the second division title.