After several false starts, Chris Woakes finally looks ready to fulfill his potential at international level
Andrew Miller16-Jun-2016For much of his international career, Chris Woakes’ mentions in dispatches from England’s selectors have often felt like an article of faith. With a classical swing-bowler’s action, plus the batting composure and technique of a top-order stalwart, the talent, few have ever disputed, has always been there in abundance. However, that top note of excellence has sometimes felt just out of reach.But then, in the Test series against Sri Lanka, Ben Stokes’ involvement was curtailed by a knee injury at Headingley, and back came Woakes for another examination of his credentials. And this time, by George, you began to suspect that he might finally have cracked it.”I’ve always believed I’ve been good enough to play at Test level but I’ve dipped in and out a bit,” said Woakes during a Royal London event in London. “In the series against India in 2014, it felt like I bowled well without getting the rewards.”My better spells have come when I’ve had a little period in the team. So this week, from the Durham Test onwards, it was a bit of a breakthrough really. I always believed I could do it, but you still have your doubts until you do it. It was about letting the people around me know it.”Woakes arrived in the side off the back of a career-best innings haul of 9 for 36 for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston, which was an emphatic hint of the confidence coursing through his game, but from the moment he started thudding into the back netting during England’s practice sessions at Chester-le-Street, it was clear that he was back with some extra zip to his bowling.Sure enough, according to the speed guns during the final two Tests, Woakes was consistently the fastest bowler on either team, hustling Sri Lanka’s batsmen with a blend of skill and speed that the man himself admits hasn’t always been a feature of his performances.”When I was a young bowler I used to just swing the ball. I literally just threw it up there, swung it both ways but didn’t try and bowl quick,” he said. “I just used to let my skills do the talking. To a certain extent, that worked. But then when you get on flat pitches you realise that you need a little bit more than that.”To be fair to the ECB – and in particular its oft-maligned performance programme at Loughborough – that search for the extra something that separates competent county performers from the best in the business has been a common refrain for as long as England have harboured ambitions to be the best in the world.It has not always been a fruitful search. The list of players who complain that the race for pace has hampered their careers is endless – not least among them James Harris, the last English bowler before Woakes to claim nine wickets in an innings, for Middlesex against Durham in May last year.
“I felt like I put on a yard of pace quite quickly but then lost my skills, and dropped back down to try and find them again”Chris Woakes
“We went searching for a lot of things,” said Harris in the wake of that performance. “We changed a lot of things, and we probably found the half a yard we needed, but it was to the detriment of skill and moving it around. I don’t care if you bowl 100mph, if you don’t move it around you’re probably not going to be too successful.”Woakes, tellingly, doesn’t disagree that he too lost some of his natural ability in pursuit of those extra yards. But to judge by his displays at Chester-le-Street and Lord’s, his sacrifice of subtlety has been worth it in exchange for impact.”It’s something I’ve been working on for three years or so, it didn’t come overnight,” he said. “I worked with Graeme Welch when he was at Warwickshire, and Kevin Shine, about using my front arm more, which I feel has made me put on a yard of pace over a long period of time.”But when I first started doing that I felt like I’d lost some of my ability to move the ball as well. It’s kind of being able to use the two together and almost dropping back a little bit, because I felt like I put on a yard of pace quite quickly but then lost my skills, and dropped back down to try and find them again.”The system in general has helped in leaps and bounds,” he added, citing the various schemes and programmes he has been a part of in the course of what is now a decade-long career. “I’ve been on a number of A tours and done quite a few stints up at Loughborough … I did two camps in Florida, quite a few years ago. That was a hell of a trip! I can see why they cancelled that one!”It was good in my development, learning how to look after your body and get fitter and stronger. I don’t believe that trip helped me gain more pace. I got stronger and bigger but I didn’t necessarily bowl quicker. But it definitely taught me how to look after myself in the gym, which is very important.”I also did a fast bowling camp in Chennai with Dennis Lillee, which was good because that was the first time I’d ever been to India. It’s a number of things that have come together but a lot of hard work with Graeme Welch, Kevin Shine and a couple of other coaches.”The best education, however, is arguably the one he is getting from the other end of the pitch during Test matches. In James Anderson, Woakes is in the presence of one of the great fast-bowling technicians, a man whose command of seam and swing is peerless among his countrymen.Chris Woakes is part of England’s ODI squad for the Royal London series•ESPNcricinfo Ltd”He is England’s best-ever bowler by a country mile,” Woakes said. “The thing I find amazing with Jimmy is how rarely he misses his length. It might be slightly wide or straight but his length very rarely changes.”I don’t know whether that is because he is a genius or because he’s learnt his trade over a few more years and he is now at a period of his career where it just comes.”I mean the guy has got 450 Test wickets now and to think I’m near to 400 first-class wickets [he has 392] … I just can’t get my head around 450 Test wickets.”To a degree, Woakes feels, his improved showing at Test level has given him more of a right to pick the brains of the men around him.”Ever since I’ve come into [the team] Jimmy’s been there and you try to tap into his knowledge without disrupting his mood too much. But now that I’m more comfortable in the team I feel more comfortable about going up to Jimmy and asking him, ‘What do you think here?’ and he’s more comfortable coming up to me and saying, ‘What about this or that?'”When you first come into the team you’re a little bit reluctant to ask, or they might say something for the sake of saying something because you’re new, but now it is just a great place to be with them onside.”Staying in the side is Woakes’ next challenge, and while the probable return of Stokes for the Pakistan series means that his place will remain under scrutiny, an impressive showing in the forthcoming one-day series will doubtless cause the selectors to ponder their options.”I’d like to think I have given the selectors a headache,” he said. “I’d rather give them a headache than not. But at the same time we know Ben, if 100% fit, he’ll come straight back into the team. We’ve seen what he’s done over the past 12 months, he’s a brilliant cricketer.”But I saw something that Cookie [Alastair Cook] said, when I was going to play in Durham, he said we don’t feel like we’ve seen the best of Chris Woakes yet, which is understandable and a fair call.”I feel I gave a glimpse over the last two Test matches of what I can give. With confidence going forward, I might be a shout for the Pakistan series, or with other Test series coming up in the future, knowing that they can call on me and have seen what I can do.”Chris Woakes was speaking at a Sri Lankan-inspired cooking event hosted by Royal London, proud sponsors of one-day cricket
