Dropped Woakes will bounce back - Root

England captain Joe Root is confident Chris Woakes will “come back strong” after he was replaced by Toby Roland-Jones for the third Test against West Indies at Lord’s.

Root pointed to Middlesex bowler RolandJones’ knowledge of the playing surface at his home ground for the decision, as England attempt to bounce back from a surprise five-wicket defeat in the second Test at Headingley.

Root said: “Home conditions, he (Roland-Jones) obviously knows the surfaces and is bowling very well at the moment.

“It’s obviously very difficult to leave somebody like Chris out, he’s been a consistent performer in Test cricket for England. But this is a team I think is going to win this week.

“There’s plenty of cricket to be played throughout the rest of this summer and he’s a fantastic performer across all formats. I fully expect him to come back strong.”

Root also gave his backing to batsman Tom Westley, who has scored just 19 runs in three innings in the series starting at number three.

Root added: “You speak as a batting group and as a team and you have conversations in the dressing room all the time and you want to make sure you are helping out where and when you can.

“Ultimately no one knows Tom’s game like he does. He’s a smart young man and he’ll be desperate to prove a point and put some big runs on the board this week.

“Credit to the West Indies they played very well last week, but we’re a strong side and we’ve shown that we’ve been able to come back from difficult weeks and this is another opportunity for us.

“I thought we showed great character last week, coming back into the game after a poor start.

“Every time you go out there and play Test cricket you are going to have to show great character.”