- The seam bowler collected his a hundred and fiftieth wicket throughout England’s win vs West Indies
- Woakes, who’s 35, is about to play his fiftieth Take a look at on Thursday at Trent Bridge
Chris Woakes has refused to rule out making the journey to Australia in 2025-26, and desires to emulate the late-career evolution of each Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson as he embarks on a brand new function as England’s senior seamer.
Woakes, who’s 35, is about to play his fiftieth Take a look at on Thursday, in opposition to West Indies at Trent Bridge, having collected his a hundred and fiftieth wicket throughout England’s innings victory at Lord’s – a sport overshadowed by the retirement of Anderson.
He appeared down on tempo, particularly within the first innings, and a few questioned why he was not being ushered in the identical course as Anderson, given the unlikeliness of his choice for Australia.
The discrepancy between his home-and-away Take a look at bowling averages – 22 versus almost 52 – has not strengthened his case both, whereas the sudden rise of Gus Atkinson, who took 12 wickets at Lord’s, and the presence of Mark Wooden, Matthew Potts and the uncapped Dillon Pennington, have created further strain.
However Woakes, who a 12 months in the past was named participant of the sequence after the house Ashes, insisted: ‘I do not rule something out these days. It might be arduous for me to face right here and say I will be the opening bowler in that Ashes. Clearly my away file is not pretty much as good as my house.
Chris Woakes hopes to emulate the careers of each Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad
Woakes collected his a hundred and fiftieth wicket throughout England’s innings victory at Lord’s
‘However on the identical time, I’ve checked out Stu and Jimmy evolve as they have older. And I nonetheless hope that I can probably do the identical.’
The Lord’s Take a look at was solely Woakes’s third first-class match of the summer time, after he took a break from cricket following the loss of life of his father, Roger, in Might. He described the intervening interval as a ‘powerful couple of months’, and has taken simply two wickets at 125 every since his return.
His problem now might be to claim himself with the brand new ball – a job he has fulfilled in solely 18 of the 93 Take a look at innings by which he has bowled. His finest figures – 65 wickets at 26 – have come as first change, and the administration might be on the lookout for one thing related as assault chief if he’s to increase his England profession past the summer time, not to mention attain the Ashes.
