Chris Woakes: England’s most essential all-rounder at home
Amid the legendary presence of James Anderson; bustling Broad; speedsters Mark Wood-Jofra Archer, and most importantly, an impossible-to-ignore Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes often finds himself to be the elephant in the room. He is there, and yet not. He has it, and yet not.
If there ever is any player who has been highly underrated and unheeded on many occasions in England in the last half a decade or so, it has to be Chris Woakes. Quite unfortunately, that’s what it has been like for Woakes. He has always been the one who fills England’s gaps.
With a world-class all-rounder in Ben Stokes, who presses himself inside with sheer dominance, the opportunities come scarce for Woakes. For Woakes, the batsman, top-order is never the slot. With Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley coming of age and settling in and Joe Root doing his job quietly for years now, the middle-order is sealed too. And no wonder that Woakes finds himself searching for places at times in a highly competitive lower-middle order.
The numbers game
However, overcoming all the challenges, Woakes has put together quite a career through some really promising performances. Not too long ago did he make an entry in the elite Test club, and that too as the third-fastest for England, of 100+ wickets alongside 1000+ runs. He took 34 Tests to achieve that. In his not-too-long Test career of 36 Tests, he has numerous entries on the Lord’s honors boards: for 5-wicket hauls, a solitary 10-wicket haul and a Test ton too!
In coloured clothes, Woakes has a distinction only 22 English men have i.e. playing matches in excess of 100. Of those 22, only six have claimed more wickets than him. Despite such exploits, the all-rounder is quite often included in a Test and at times even in ODI XI not because of his talent but as a replacement of an injured player.
However, it’s not a solved equation with Woakes. His staggering home performance aside, a cause of concern remains to be his overseas performance wherein 14 Tests he has 437 runs at a poor average of 19.00. With the ball, he has 25 wickets at an average even he would term as horrible; 51.68. The best for Woakes would have been interchanging his batting and bowling averages. Jokes apart, his overseas Test performance is disappointing, to say the least. Nevertheless, his overall record is too decent a record for someone to be benched.
Problems for Chris Woakes are not coming to an end as the Three Lions’ strategy with the bowling unit appears evident. With James Anderson approaching the end of his career, England has clearly shown a penchant of coupling Archer and Wood aside Broad. Against the West Indies, Woakes was in for two matches out of three and he scalped 11 wickets including a crucial 5-for in the second innings at Old Trafford.
Woakes’ immaculate 84 alongside an equally praiseworthy 75 from Jos Buttler did a miracle for his team: won them a Test they never ever looked like winning. For having done that against Pakistan at Manchester, it’s time for England to be grateful and consider him seriously a lot more than they have thus far.
