With England 2-0 up and the series decided, individual issues assumed greater interest alongside the team’s fortunes for the third and final Test at Lord’s.
One who emphatically did was Chris Woakes. It’s safe to say that no-one at Edgbaston was in the least surprised.
England wanted to win, of course, but the overall objective was already achieved. So attention turned to who, among the players striving to cement a place in the side, would seize their opportunity?
One who emphatically did was Chris Woakes. It’s safe to say that no-one at Edgbaston was in the least surprised.
In his eighth Test, Woakes showed his class with bat and ball. In the first innings he batted with skill and composure for 66 from 142 balls to help lift his team away from a moderate 227 for six. In the second innings he quite simply didn’t put a foot wrong.
With the ball, his first-innings analysis of 17.1-5-31-3, deserved to be better still. He was unanimously rated the pick of the attack. When that attack includes Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, that’s quite an accolade.
Regarding Christopher Roger Woakes, for certain pundits, principally those who rarely attend county cricket, it has taken some time for the penny to drop that here is a cricketer from the top drawer. Perhaps it is because his bowling is more about skill than that attribute with which so many onlookers are obsessed; pace (although his bowling is quicker now than ever). Perhaps because he is not London-based. Perhaps because he is, to some sections of the media, that anathema; a rock-solid, respectful bloke who says nothing stupid and does nothing to invite attention on the news pages.
Woakes showed his class with bat and ball. In the first innings he batted with skill and composure for 66 from 142 balls to help lift his team away from a moderate 227 for six.
It has taken a while. But the penny has dropped now.
A month ago Woakes served notice of his form when he dismantled Durham with nine for 36 in the Specsavers County Championship at Edgbaston. That display of seam bowling was, a Durham player observed, “as good as any of us will ever see in county cricket.” Paul Collingwood commented that Woakes had unleashed a series of “90 miles-per-hour leg-breaks.” Up in the media centre, a cricket reporter of many years standing, hitherto unconvinced largely due to having not seen much of him, was purring. A chap who does not scatter praise lightly was simply beaming with joy at having witnessed a beautiful example of the art of bowling.
So England’s selectors face a dilemma when Ben Stokes is fit. Stokes or Woakes? Both, surely. But if it came down to either/or?
Well, Stokes is capable of the truly spectacular as South Africa discovered at Newlands last January. But which of the two, over the course of time, will provide more match-saving and match-winning all-round contributions to the team? I’ll take C.R.Woakes.
See England play Sri Lanka at Edgbaston
Now the Invested Test series is over the Royal London One-Day international series is just about to begin, and Sri Lanka will be an entirely different proposition in this format of the game.
