Woakes return put on hold by lack of first-class matches
CHRIS WOAKES’S return to Test cricket could be delayed until next month’s series against West Indies because there are no red-ball matches in county cricket until early August.
Woakes, who was ruled out of the first two Tests against South Africa after suffering a gradetwo strain in his left side at the start of the Champions Trophy, had hoped to return for the third Test at The Oval beginning on July 27.
But county cricket is now in Twenty20 mode and Woakes will have to wait until Warwickshire meet Middlesex at Lord’s on August 6 — the third day of the fourth Test at Old Trafford — for a firstclass game.
Woakes’s prolonged absence also means Hampshire leg-spinner Mason Crane will have to wait for his Test debut until the West Indies series, which gets going with the first day/night Test in this country at Edgbaston on August 17.
England are keen to give the 20-year-old Crane, who impressed in his two Twenty20 international appearances against South Africa in June, a taste of Test cricket before this winter’s Ashes.
But without Woakes to come in at No 8, the selectors are reluctant to lengthen the tail by including Crane, who has a first-class batting average of 10 and a top score of 29.
Assuming both Woakes and Crane appear in the series against West Indies, that could mean Mark Wood and Liam Dawson missing out.
As for Adil Rashid, who claimed 30 wickets in Bangladesh and India over the winter, England have all but drawn a line under his Test career. Dawson has been designated as England’s No 1 spinner, despite Moeen Ali claiming 10 wickets in the Test win over South Africa at Lord’s.
But that is simply a ploy to take the pressure off Moeen, who by his own admission bowls better when less is expected of him.
Wood is considered crucial to England’s bid to retain the Ashes and a history of fitness problems mean a rest from the West Indies series would perhaps not be the worst thing.