Fill the gap concert 20166/27/2023 ![]() After a frustrating recent summer, the bulk of which was wiped out by a side strain, he is feeling fresh again and expects to be back to full pace, having laboured in his one Test, the defeat to West Indies at Headingley, due to a lack of overs under his belt.Ĭoming on at first change behind Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad in Australia means he will not see the best of the Kookaburra ball’s early conventional swing but he is optimistic that the reverse he and others managed to get out of it on last year’s tour of Bangladesh can be harnessed once more come the first Test in Brisbane on 23 November. Woakes is, though, a bowler first and it is in this discipline where England will be hoping for his best output. The 28-year-old has always looked to maintain the mindset of a batsman too, crediting Graham Gooch, a former England batting coach, for fostering this outlook at first. ![]() In a fully available Test side Woakes sits at No9 but he occupies a top-six berth at Warwickshire, has nine first-class centuries and a technically sound game. I take my batting as seriously as possible.” “If I am to bat higher up the order, I will try to embrace that challenge and look forward to the opportunity to score some runs for the team – to get in and score some big runs. “Losing Ben as an all-rounder means myself, Moeen and I suppose even Jonny have more of a chance to prove our worth,” he said. Should this plan be enacted once more, Woakes is unsurprisingly confident. When Stokes was injured then, that Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali and the recalled Woakes batted at six, seven and eight to allow an extra seamer.Īll three thrived a spot higher and for the latter, who had previously shown only glimpses of promise and found doubters aplenty, it proved a breakthrough summer, claiming 34 wickets from six Tests against Sri Lanka and Pakistan and averaging 40 with the bat. ![]() It is unlikely that Joe Root will veer from planning for life without Stokes yet and though the make-up of the team is yet to be decided, this will likely mean the formula of 2016 being adopted. Even if the panel clears him to participate for some or all of the series, the management will have to decide whether or not his presence would prove too great a distraction or not. Whether this mitigates the events that followed in the eyes of the Crown Prosecution Service remains to be seen, while England’s own disciplinary procedure will also have to take a view. However, events did appear to swing in his favour a touch overnight, at least in the court of public opinion, with two key witnesses to the incident having now come forward to tell the police – and the Sun – that Stokes had come to their defence during the early hours of that morning after they had been on the receiving end of homophobic abuse. Suspended on full pay and awaiting the outcome of a police investigation into the incident in Bristol on 25 September, Stokes will not take part in the five-Test series as things stand. Stokes’s absence had looked cast in stone when England departed for Perth on Saturday morning to begin their tour of Australia and he remained grounded at home.
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