Woakes praises Root after England’s ODI win over Sri Lanka at Riverside
Chris Woakes paid tribute to Joe Root before and after the pair steered England to a crushing victory in the first one-day international against Sri Lanka.
Root became the seventh Englishman to play 150 ODIs when he was named in the XI atEmiratesRiversideandlongterm team-mate Woakes was chosen to make the pre-match presentation.
Having taken centre stage in the pre-match huddle, the duo continued to dominate proceedings in the middle, with Woakes claiming exemplary figures of four for 18 and Rootseeinghissidehomewith a measured 79 not out.
The Warwickshire allrounder edged the player-ofthe-match honours having eased the pressure on his batsmenbyrestrictingthetourists to just 185, a target they reeled in with five wickets and more than 15 overs in hand. But he washappytopushthespotlight on Root, who settled things after a mini-collapse of four wickets in seven overs.
“Not that he needed to, but it certainly reminded us that he is a class act,” said Woakes.
“He probably doesn’t actually realise how good he is himself. He’s got close to 80 at almost run a ball. When you’re watching, he kind of accumulates without you even knowing it. He’s a world class player, and he made that look extremely easy when we know it actually wasn’t.
“He’s very much a calming influence on this group. We’ve got a very aggressive batting line-up and we do take the attack to the opposition but over the last couple of years we’ve also been very smart and obviously Joe’s a big part of that, he is very much the glue through the middle.”
Woakes was in full control once England tossed him the new ball at the start of play, scoring 49, but confessed to feeling nervous about his less usual role as public speaker.
“I didn’t get much sleep!” hejoked,whenaskedabouthis partinRoot’scappresentation.
“Ideliveredthespeechthen realised I had a game to play. It was a really nice moment and nice to be asked.
“I said that I could harp on about all the stats and the figures, but actually what he’s so goodatishetrainswellandhe’s always looking at ways to get better.He’salwaystryingtoimprovehimselfeventhoughhe’s at the top of his game already.”
Englandhavenowwonfour white-ball matches in a row against Sri Lanka, all by handsome margins and they will be strongly fancied to add two moreattheKiaOvalandBristol in the coming days.