It has been a frustrating season for Chris Woakes and the day before this Test he wasn’t certain of his place. He has now joined an exclusive club
Melinda Farrell at Lord's11-Aug-2018There was a standing joke in the press box during England’s one-day series against Australia in January. Any time Chris Woakes took a wicket, stroked a cover drive, saved a boundary or – eventually – pretty much just walked out onto the field or scratched his nose, the cry would go up: “And THAT’S why they call him ‘The Wizard!'”On the third afternoon at Lord’s, with Woakes on 55 and in the middle of rescuing a shaky England with Jonny Bairstow, two of the journalists from that tour met in the tea room. The phrase didn’t even need uttering: an exchange of knowing smiles could suffice.The nickname may have been bestowed during a darts competition on an Under-19s tour but it is better appreciated on a cricket field. And if Woakes is a wizard then Lord’s is most certainly his Hogwarts. He has only played three Tests at the ground but his record already is simply astonishing: he is the only player with more than ten wickets to his name to average more than 100 with the bat and less than 10 with the ball at a Test venue. Ever. Anywhere. And he now has his name on all three honours boards: five-wickets in an innings, ten in a match and a century.Amazingly, Woakes’ name wasn’t even inked onto the team sheet less than 24 hours before the start of this match, Joe Root deferring the choice between the seaming allrounder and Moeen Ali until the morning of the match, the delayed start and damp conditions eventually working in Woakes’ favour. If Ben Stokes had been available he would likely have been further back in the queue.This follows a challenging period for Woakes, a combination of a side strain and a chronic knee problem keeping him out of contention since the second Test against Pakistan and denying him the opportunity to push for selection in his home Test at Edgbaston.”It has been a frustrating summer so far, missing quite a bit of cricket,” said Woakes. “I was over the moon to get the call to be back in the squad. I could never really have dreamt of scoring a hundred in my comeback Test. With five or six weeks out injured, you’re watching the boys all summer and you want to be out there.”They may play similar roles, their names may rhyme, but their mode of impacting a game are poles apart. While an inked-up muscular Stokes can grab hold of a Test and rip it open with moments of sheer ferocity, a clean-cut mild-mannered Woakes can scythe his way through the opposition with technical precision and classical grace. Both can be beautiful, in their own way, but one tends to make a bigger splash, the highlights reel, the most dramatic still pictures on the back pages.Similarly, James Anderson claimed the most wickets and the headlines in the first innings but Woakes’ display of swing and seam was also masterful. Incredibly his two wickets were preceded by two drops: Jos Buttler put down both Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya before redeeming himself with the next deliveries. Being made to work twice as hard for every wicket might send many fast bowlers into a paroxysm of fury expressed through death stares at the guilty slips fielder. Woakes blew air through his lips and went back to his mark, although the second time appeared to say something that may or may not rhyme with, ‘get in the sucking nits’. He probably washed his mouth out and made a donation to charity when he got back to the dressing room.Chris Woakes plays a cut•Getty ImagesAs England were stuttering in their attempt to pass India’s modest tally, Woakes stiffened the defence with Bairstow and ultimately outpaced and outlasted one of England’s most in-form batsmen. He did so with impressive discipline. According to Cricviz, of all the batsmen in this series so far he has played and missed the least in testing conditions – just 3.7 percent – and he has been in control of 86 percent of his shots.He defended stoutly and played with soft hands when the ball was swinging. As it became older and softer he increased his attack and possibly his wildest stroke was the one that brought up his hundred, launching Pandya towards the midwicket boundary, a stone’s throw from where his name will be etched on the honours board for a third time.”It’s still a bit of a blur,” said Woakes. “It seems to go so fast – 30 seconds of raising your bat feels literally like a blink of the eye. But it’s an incredible feeling. I was probably getting a little bit nervous in the 90s… all of a sudden you start thinking of three-figures, start wafting at things outside off-stump – which I hadn’t been doing.”Jonny came down and had a word, which settled me. That feeling of raising your bat to a standing ovation at Lord’s is a bit of a boyhood dream.And Woakes has done all this in the sleep-deprived fog of new parenthood. His wife, Amie, and their five-week-old daughter, Laila, are staying with him this week.”Yes, it has been a little bit different – a little bit of a shock to the system, but obviously fantastic as well. It certainly puts things in perspective, when you have a bad day at the cricket and go home.”The lads did ask me actually where was the baby celebration – but for some reason, that wasn’t really on my mind. I didn’t really have any ideas of how I was going to celebrate, and didn’t really know how to – but I’m obviously just delighted.”If being so overwhelmed with joy that he didn’t know how to celebrate is the only mark against Woakes it’s so faint it can be overlooked.Not so faint will be his name, etched in black, on a third honours board at Lord’s, a feat only five players have achieved. He was already on the lists for bowlers who have taken five wickets in an innings and ten wickets in a match here. Now he joins the roll-call of batsmen who have scored a century on a ground where he currently averages 122.All while being so, well, nice.And maybe THAT’S why they call him…Oh go on. You know the rest.
