'Woakes return more important than ever to England'

BBC News

4 hours ago

It is reasonable to wonder where this England team and the entire Ben Stokes-Brendon McCullum project might be without Chris Woakes.Two years ago, with England 2-0 down in a home Ashes, reputations and possibly jobs were on the line. Woakes was recalled when England were staring into the abyss.Alongside his good mate Mark Wood, Woakes engineered victory at Headingley, the pair in the middle together when the winning runs were hit, then it was Woakes who did most of the work in Stuart Broad's send-off at The Oval. A 2-2 draw, Woakes the player of the series despite only playing three Tests."There are sliding doors moments in sport, even more so in Test cricket," the Warwickshire man tells BBC Sport after a gym session at Edgbaston. "A lot had probably written us off. It was great to have such an impact on such a big series when the team needed it the most."On Friday, Woakes returns to Leeds for the beginning of England's five-Test series against India. At 36, the oldest player in the squad, he has perhaps never been more important to an England team.Amid the lust for high pace and an attack to win in Australia, it will be Woakes who bowls the first over for the home team, his accuracy and movement most likely to torment an Indian line-up lacking experience in English conditions.In 2024, Woakes played nine Tests, his second-most in a calendar year in a career that began in 2013. Sam Cook's indifferent audition against Zimbabwe last month only served to enhance Woakes' importance.Not that Woakes, with a well-deserved reputation as the nicest man in cricket, will talk up his role."I'm not a massive fan of 'attack leader' chat," he says. "An opener faces the first ball, but we don't say they are the leader of the batting."Woakes prefers the idea of being the "senior" bowler, a mantle inherited when James Anderson retired last summer. Even then, Woakes would often give choice of ends to pacey rookie Gus Atkinson, or allow Anderson to get involved in choosing the ball when he moved into the role of bowling consultant.After much prompting, Woakes finally concedes he will choose the ball at Headingley, then catches himself: "If I'm around," he says.
Woakes is returning from an ankle problem he first felt at the end of England's tour of New Zealand in December. He says it might have been down to a switch in the boots he was wearing, which he has now changed back.To go straight into the England XI is a contrast to much of Woakes' career, when he was often competing for the one pace-bowling spot behind Anderson and Broad.In the summer of 2022, the birth of Bazball, he did not play at all because of a knee injury. Before he underwent surgery, Woakes wondered if his red-ball career was over."When a team is winning without you, your first thought is how hard it will be to get back in," says Woakes."I was just worried my red-ball stuff was done and if I could get back to the level that was needed to play Test cricket. To stay on the field, to slam your leg down for 25 overs a day. Thankfully, since then it's been pretty good."Since Woakes returned, England have won 10 of the 12 Tests he has played and he has taken 51 wickets at an average of 21.88. In the same period, only India's Jasprit Bumrah, Australia's Josh Hazlewood and South Africa's Kagiso Rabada have taken as many wickets at a better average.Overall, with 1,970 runs and 181 wickets, Woakes is closing in on becoming only the sixth Englishman to do the 2,000-200 double in Tests and will probably do so as the second-fastest in terms of matches, after Ian Botham.He is part of an exclusive club of England players to have won the Ashes and both 20- and 50-over World Cups, including Stokes, Wood, Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler. Eoin Morgan also sneaks in if you count his squad role on the 2010-11 tour of Australia.There is a legitimate case to ask whether a player of Woakes' record and achievements has been underappreciated."At some points I might have been, but it's never really bothered me," he says. "I don't see myself as one of the greats. You know what you are. I don't put myself in the bracket of Broady and Jimmy, or Glenn McGrath or Curtly Ambrose."I believe I've got the best out of my ability. I've worked my nuts off to get there. At the end of the day, if I'm being picked, it's clear I'm good enough to play for England. As long as I'm contributing, that's all that really matters."There remains the anomaly of his away record, a bowling average of almost 49 overseas compared to below 22 at home. Still, in the past winter abroad, England won the three Tests Woakes played and lost the three he did not.Questions will hang over the role he could play in Australia later this year but, at the moment, his sheer availability amid a field hospital full of fast bowlers could be enough for a ticket down under. Even if all the bowlers are fit, Woakes should be encouraged by Scott Boland's recent performances with a spiced-up Kookaburra ball, and the day-night second Test in Brisbane.
For Woakes, the Ashes is where his Test career began, as a 24-year-old 12 years ago. He is one of the few remaining in the current set-up to have shared an England dressing room with Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior and Graeme Swann, run with an iron fist by the formidable Andy Flower. A hugely successful team, winners in India, Australia and ranked number one in the world, Woakes caught the tailend before an implosion on the Ashes tour of 2013-14."You can't live at that level of intensity and scrutiny, with a ruthless and rigid structure," says Woakes. "It took them to breaking point. When you get to the top of the mountain, it's about staying there. That's the hardest point."Woakes, therefore, is well placed to make comparisons between eras, to the free-wheeling style of McCullum and Stokes."What Brendon and Stokesy want is for guys to remember their time playing for England as the best days of their life," says Woakes. "We will train hard, we want to win, all of those things, but don't lose sight of having a good time and looking back at playing for England with real fond memories."Flip reverse to that team, I don't know how many of them would say they had the time of their lives doing it. I just don't know. You'd have to ask them."And so, whether he likes to admit it or not, Woakes is preparing to be the leader of the England attack once more. An all-rounder in every sense, his days as a youngster with Walsall earned him the tag of the best footballer in the England team, and a love of snooker means he can knock in breaks of 70-plus.He admits to targeting another summer or two as an England player, but doubts he will follow Anderson lacing up the boots into his fifth decade."It's whether I can keep performing at this level for as long as I possibly can," says Woakes. "As soon as I feel like it's gone or I lose the desire, then the time will come."At the minute I'm more motivated than ever. I don't see myself playing to Jimmy's age, as much as I love the game. I don't think I can still hobble out of bed at 40."