Chris Woakes remains committed to playing Test cricket abroad after another fine day at home, collecting three for 32 as England bowled Sri Lanka out for 236 at Old Trafford.
Woakes was quick into his work on the opening day of the series, taking two wickets with the new ball as Sri Lanka fell to six for three before he added Kamindu Mendis to his collection later on. The 35‑year‑old has 14 Test wickets this summer at an average of 19.07, building on an excellent home Ashes last year when he won the Compton-Miller medal for player of the series.
Woakes was ignored by England for their tour of India last winter, however, having previously struggled overseas: his 36 Test wickets away from home have come at an average of 51.88. Speaking in December, Woakes labelled his omission from the India tour as “fair”.
Asked on Wednesday if he was interested in featuring later this year on Test tours of Pakistan and New Zealand, Woakes replied: “I’ll play for England where I’m picked to play for England. That will be a discussion for further down the line but I’m certainly not ruling myself out. Selectors will have their plans but I’m certainly not going to turn down a tour if selected. We shall see.
“As you get older, the more Test cricket you play, you pick up new skills, have more experience to fall back on and [are] a little bit wiser. That might be a good thing as well that I haven’t [played an away Test] in a little while. It gives you a fresh look on things.”
Woakes was “really, really happy” with his side’s display in Manchester, despite defiant half-centuries from Dhananjaya de Silva (74) and Milan Rathnayake (72), on debut at No 9, salvaging Sri Lanka’s innings after the visitors collapsed to 113 for seven. Bad light forced England’s stand-in captain, Ollie Pope, to turn to spin for most of the evening session, as Shoaib Bashir twirled in for 23 overs to claim figures of three for 53. Gus Atkinson took two himself, while Mark Wood bounced out Kusal Mendis with a vicious 93mph delivery.
Woakes said: “To bowl a team out on day one of a Test match and to be none down at the close is a superb day. Had the weather, the conditions and the light been a little bit different we feel we could have trimmed a few off there, but still really happy.”
Pope, Woakes said, “did a great job” filling in for the injured Ben Stokes. “Ollie’s been VC to Ben for a little while now so he’s obviously picked up on how Ben goes about it and has probably brought a little bit of that into him. But he’s also himself, which is really important for him moving forward.”
