Follow UsThe terms ‘underrated’ and ‘underappreciated’ have been used so much to describe Chris Woakes that it almost feels lazy to now associate him with those terms.
But then you look at the numbers and realize actually how criminally underrated and underappreciated this bloke is.
In Test history, there are a total of 15 seamers who have taken more than 100 wickets in England. Do you know how many of them in this list have a better bowling average than Woakes? Two: Fred Trueman and Alec Bedser. Both of them retired 20 years before Woakes was born.
And guess how many have taken those wickets at a better strike rate than Woakes’ 43.3? None. Not Trueman. Not Broad. Not Anderson.
Indeed, in Woakes, we actually are witnessing the greatest ever strike bowler to have played Test cricket in England.
If your immediate reaction to the statement above is, ‘woah, that’s a hyperbole, let’s not get ahead of ourselves’, fair enough. I mean, after all, this very XI that Woakes is a part of consists of two bowlers who have played 4x the number of Tests he has, and have taken 4x the number of wickets he has (in English conditions).
But a sample size of 27 Tests and 104 wickets is no joke. Either way, the bottom line here is this: Chris Woakes with a dukes ball in hand in England is in the upper most echelon of match-winners in Test cricket.
It is not normal to consistently do what Woakes has been doing now for a decade. It is not normal to take 7 wickets in a Test, not play again at home for two years and then come back immediately and take 10* wickets in 3 innings. (*he is not done yet).
Chris Woakes the bowler in England is not normal. He is a superhuman masquerading as the boy next door, giving batters a false sense of security by bowling at 130 clicks before eventually wrecking them with skill that is unmatched.
As much as Australia were blown away by the sheer pace of Mark Wood at Headingley, they were also undone by the mastery of Woakes, whose bowling was a huge reason why England were able to make it 2-1.
The Aussies went from 240/4 to 263 all-out in the first innings at Headingley thanks to Wood’s assault — the madman took 4 wickets in the space of 13 balls — but it was Woakes who set up the slaughter, going BANG BANG to remove both set batters Travis Head and centurion Mitchell Marsh inside nine balls. If not for Root’s butter fingers, he would have had Marsh whilst the Western Australian was still in single digits but that’s a story for another day.
Again in the second innings, with a partnership brewing between Marsh and Head, it was Woakes who broke it, getting Marsh caught behind. Not content with one, he picked up Alex Carey four overs later to clear up one end and leave Head no recognized batters to play with.
On Day 1 at Old Trafford, Woakes broke not one, not two, but three crucial stands. And as a 1+1 offer, he also delivered his signature double-bang with the old ball, removing both the Western Australian units — Green and Mitch Marsh — in the same over.
Really, on Wednesday, Woakes single-handedly ensured that Stokes’ decision to bowl first on a sunny day on a grass-less wicket didn’t look foolish.
Warner was his first victim. Davey, in general, might be obsessed with the ‘Broady’s gonna get you’ song but on the day, Broady did not get him. And in this series, the last time Warner managed to get through Broad’s first spell on Day 1, he went on to make 66.
The left-hander, after a brisk and nerveless start, looked on course for his second fifty of the series but Woakes, on the other side of the drinks break, lured him into a drive and had him nicking to the wicket-keeper. The dangerous 46-run stand between Warner and Labuschagne needed breaking; Woakes put his hand up.
Woakes then went 9 overs without a wicket but just when it looked like the Marsh-Green stand was, for once, turning the tide Australia’s way, there he was again. The 1+1 strike, removing both Green and Marsh in the space of five balls.
Those two dismissals are all you need to see to understand why Woakes is a literal god with a Dukes ball in hand, at times unplayable when the conditions are in his favour.
As is evident from the graphic above, both the Green and Marsh wickets pitched on an identical length, and the lines were not too different either.
But while one (Green) nipped back and trapped the right-hander LBW, the other (Marsh) deviated off the wicket, seamed away ever so slightly and took the outside edge. Good luck trying to play that.
Later, he pitched another one on a similar length and got the better of Carey for the second time in two innings. The Carey wicket with the second new ball, which came just before stumps, was huge: it broke a promising 39-run stand and thanks to that, England on Day 2 will have a real chance of bowling Australia out inside the first 30 minutes of the day, with Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood being the only batters left.
If you’re still wondering what makes Woakes so good in England, it’s just that he knows where to bowl. Nobody is as good at bowling the right lengths in England as Woakes is.
What’s that length, you ask? It’s that 6m-8m (full-ish good length) which always brings about indecision in the batter (whether to play forward or go back).
Case in point, 8 of 10 Woakes wickets so far this Ashes have come off a ‘good’ length (6m-8m).
Extending this to his entire home career, nearly 57% of Woakes’ wickets in England (59/104) have been off good length deliveries.
The man’s a machine. And there is no escaping.
The answer for why Woakes is not celebrated as much as he should be, then, probably lies in what he’s done outside England, where he averages 51.88 in 20 Tests, taking less than a wicket per innings.
Those are truly damning numbers, but maybe it’s England that should take the hint. For the longest time they’ve ‘hoped’ for Woakes to replicate his mastery at home outside England, but a decade on, maybe it’s them who should be content with the 34-year-old being a home specialist.
Because Woakes, in his own words, is more than happy to play exclusively at home.
"I would be happy with that, yeah, for a few different reasons. As much as I'd love to go to India and take 30 wickets in the series, it's highly unlikely,” he recently told ESPN Cricinfo, when asked if he would accept never playing another Test overseas if it meant playing another two home summers.
The picture has never been clearer. Wrap him in cotton wool and use him exclusively at home, England, because when it comes to Tests at home, Christopher Roger Woakes is among the best of all time.