Chris Woakes is in line to play his 50th Test for England.
The all-rounder has been named in the starting XI for the second Rothesay Men’s Test match against the West Indies at Trent Bridge on Thursday, 18 July.
With James Anderson retiring, England have opted for the return of Durham pacer Mark Wood. That leads the 35-year old to become the new older statesman.
“It makes me feel incredibly old,” Woakes said in a recent interview with ESPNcricinfo. “Naturally, you’re going to see a lot more new players being given opportunities to move [England] forward. But I’ll try and give 100%, and try and do my role as well as I can for the team.
“Obviously, it’ll be slightly different if I was given the new ball. The majority of my career I’ve come on first-change so that’s something that I’ll maybe need to get my head around moving forward. Other than that, you try and deliver your skills and, whenever there is a new guy coming into the team, you still try and pass on a little bit of knowledge.
“I’ve been around for long enough to be able to hopefully do that. Maybe I need to do that a little bit more now that Stu and Jim have finished – particularly on the field more so than off it. That’s probably the only big thing.”
Come Thursday, Woakes will become the 69th player to reach a half-century of Tests for the Three Lions, joining Bears legends Dennis Amiss and MJK Smith on the same number.
Filtering the 69 to bowlers with over 50 wickets – Woakes currently has 150 – he will become the 30th.
The boyhood Warwickshire product will also be the seventh Bear to accrue the milestone alongside Ian Bell (118), Bob Willis (90), Moeen Ali (68), Ashley Giles (54), Jonathan Trott (52), Amiss and Smith.
To date, the right-armer has five 5-fers with 11/102 best match figures. As a valuable middle-order batter, the right-hander has 1,777 runs with one century.
“Once you get back out there and particularly putting on the England whites, it reminds you how lucky we are to do what we do,” the Aston Manor junior added.
“Seeing Jimmy this week, you know it doesn’t last forever and you have to try and enjoy every moment that you’re a part of this team. My approach at the minute is to put things in perspective, and just be happy to be here and try and give 110%.”
There will be joyous celebrations at Trent Bridge this week with plenty more the week after.
Hopefully his 51st appearance, Woakes may take the new ball on the first morning at Edgbaston, with the final and third Test starting on Friday 26 July.
Additional tickets released for West Indies Test
A small number of tickets have been released for the first three days of our Men’s Test against West Indies this summer (26-30 July).
Over 80,000 tickets have been sold across the five days and remaining tickets are expected to go quickly.
Hospitality and Premium Tickets are still available for all days.
