Chris Woakes hopes to emulate retired England legends
Chris Woakes is taking inspiration from the just-retired James Anderson and Stuart Broad to evolve into England's senior bowler.
Following James Anderson's retirement, Chris Woakes is England's senior pacer as they head into the second match of the ICC World Test Championship series against West Indies.
While his record at home is exemplary, the 35-year-old has indifferent numbers away from home. Woakes has his eyes on the next Ashes tour in 2025-26, hoping to better his numbers in Australia.
Woakes has played seven Tests in Australia without too much success — 16 wickets at an average of 51.68. But he hopes to emulate the likes of Anderson and Broad, whose numbers got better with age.
“I just don’t rule anything out,” Woakes said when asked about the Ashes tour ahead of the second Test against West Indies.
“It’d be hard for me to just stand here and say I’ll be the opening bowler in that Ashes. Obviously my away record probably isn’t as good as my home. But at the same time, I’ve looked at Stu [Broad] and Jimmy [Anderson] evolve as they’ve got older. And I still hope that I can potentially do the same, but I said I don’t look too far ahead.
“I’ve always looked throughout my England career as just looking at the very next event, the very next game, the very next series and trying to be in the best shape possible for that game, that series. I think as soon as you start looking too far ahead, you get caught up in it.”
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Woakes, who has primarily operated as a first or second-change bowler for the majority of his career (61 out of 93 innings), understands that in the late half of his career, he might need to assume new-ball duties again.
"It'll be slightly different if I was given the new ball," Woakes said.
"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."