Resurgent Woakes fills Ben’s boots
IF ONE player personified England’s miserable Test winter it was Chris Woakes, but back on home soil he stepped up to the mark to help Joe Root’s men dominate day one of this second Test at Headingley.
The all-rounder had started the Ashes tour with high hopes.
Former Australia fast bowler Jason Gillespie, now coach of Sussex, had even predicted: “Across the course of the series I have a feeling Woakes will emerge as England’s leading bowler and it could be the making of him.”
But Woakes endured a tough Ashes series, taking just 10 wickets in five Tests at 49.50, and was dropped for the final Test of the winter in Christchurch after a horror display in the previous Test against New Zealand in Auckland that saw him return match figures of 0-107.
This should have been no surprise really – after all, Woakes averages 61.77 with the ball from 12 away Tests. In England that average plummets to 23.88 from the same number of matches.
Excellent in all conditions in the one-day game, in which he leads the attack, Woakes has not been able to replicate that form in Tests.
It is no surprise the best display of his winter came in Adelaide, where with a pink ball under lights he took 4-36 in Australia’s second innings. With the red ball on flat pitches he summed up everything that was wrong with England’s onedimensional bowling attack.
For too long James Anderson and Stuart Broad have had to carry the burden with ball in hand. But for the first time in a long time Woakes ensured someone else stepped up to help out.
His return of 3-55 yesterday won’t grab many headlines but this was a performance that allowed England, again for the first time in quite a while, to apply sustained pressure on an opposition batting line-up. It’s no surprise Pakistan folded to 174 all out inside two sessions.
With Ben Stokes ruled out with a torn hamstring, England badly needed this performance from Woakes.
His recall came at a cost to Mark Wood, who was dropped from the side that lost badly at Lord’s last week.
Wood’s extra pace means he is a bowler England are keen to nurture. In Sri Lanka and West Indies this coming winter a seam attack of Stokes, Woakes, Anderson and Broad again risks being onedimensional, just as it was Down Under.
Hopefully Wood’s time will come.
For now, England, aware that the futures of coach Trevor Bayliss and Root’s captaincy were on the line, opted for someone whose reliability in home conditions would give them the edge in a must-win Test.
Woakes did not disappoint.