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Double-World Cup winner and Ashes star, but Woakes’ everyman qualities were his defining trait

Matt Roller01-Oct-2025When a sportsman retires, it is only natural to focus on their successes, and in Chris Woakes’ case, there were many. He is a double world champion, playing in both the 2019 (ODI) and 2022 (T20) World Cup finals, won the Compton-Miller medal in one of his five Ashes series, and finished a 62-match Test career with a batting average over 25 and a bowling average below 30.Woakes became a stalwart for England across formats: he spearheaded the one-day attack throughout Eoin Morgan’s white-ball revolution, regularly ran through touring Test teams, and lent balance to every side he played in. His record in England is outstanding: in 39 home Tests, he took 148 wickets at 23.87, outstripping even James Anderson and Stuart Broad.Yet the response to his international retirement on Monday – he will play on in franchise and county cricket – has underscored the sense that Woakes’ lows were an essential part of his story. His everyman quality made him the most relatable England regular of his generation, and was a huge reason why he is so highly regarded by both team-mates and fans.Woakes was a brilliant all-round sportsman, earning his nickname ‘The Wizard’ when cleaning up at a darts tournament on an Under-19s tour. Yet as a cricketer, for all his qualities, his attributes were relatively unremarkable: a swing – and, later, seam – bowler who spent most of his career bowling closer to 80mph than 90mph, and a solid if unspectacular batter.Woakes claimed three wickets as England prevailed in the 2019 World Cup final•IDI via Getty ImagesHe was not blessed with the natural pace of Mark Wood, Broad’s height, or the freakish athleticism of Ben Stokes, but developed himself into one of England’s most loved players through resilience and determination. He is a rare example of a player who undoubtedly fulfilled his potential, turning his early promise into a stellar international career.There were plenty of challenges. The timing of Woakes’ career meant that he was often competing for a single spot in England’s Test team, with Anderson, Broad and Stokes all automatic selections. He suffered various injuries – an occupational hazard – and, perhaps most notably, he struggled away from home, finishing his overseas Test career with a bowling average of 48.93.Related

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• How Woakes defied injury to front up in England's hour of need

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• Chris Woakes announces England retirement after Ashes omission

• The agony, the ecstasy: 56 minutes of Test cricket at its most glorious

He reflected on those challenges in a candid Sky interview on Tuesday. “[Fans] don’t see it all,” Woakes said. “They don’t see the tough days… the hard moments where you are struggling. It happens in sport, where we often put on a brave face but behind the scenes, within the dressing room and within hotels, there are some dark times.”Woakes also recognised the benefits that overcoming adversity had on his career: “It moulds you as a person, moulds your character. It certainly helped me, the fact that I’ve had those setbacks… There’s been highs, there’s been lows, but the lows make sure that, when you do get success and you get those rewards eventually, that means a hell of a lot more.”Inevitably, there has been a great deal of focus on Woakes’ final act as a Test cricketer since his announcement, and his decision to come out to bat with a dislocated shoulder at The Oval – in a valiant, if ultimately vain, attempt to get England over the line against India – deserves immense credit. It is a reflection on his selfless character that he saw it as his only option.Ben Stokes greets Woakes after his valiant effort at The Oval•Getty ImagesBut as the dust settles, it will be his late arrival in the 2023 Ashes that ought to be the abiding memory of Woakes’ England career. He had not played a Test match for 18 months before he was thrown into the series at 2-0 down with three to play; a month later, he was bowling England to a series-levelling victory at The Oval, finishing the series with 19 wickets at 18.15.It was trademark Woakes, a starring role made even sweeter by the adversity that had come before it. He had feared for his career when he returned from a disastrous tour of the Caribbean in early 2022 needing knee surgery, and he was consistently overlooked at Test level when he was fit enough to return.His comeback at Headingley brought six wickets and a priceless 32 not out to see England home; in Manchester, he took a first-innings five-for; at The Oval, he was named player of the match for his seven wickets, four of them on the final day. Even still, he was happy for Broad – who sealed the win in his final act as an England player – to take centre stage.It was telling that Woakes’ announcement provoked such a strong response, and Key summed up his contribution to England dressing rooms past and present by describing him as “a man who helped every team he played in, even before he walked onto the field”. It takes something special for a player to be so highly regarded by both team-mates and supporters – and Woakes was just that.

India’s besieged leader is discovering how much scrutiny there is of every move made by every captain who goes up against Bazball

Alagappan Muthu01-Feb-20241:27

Manjrekar on the lack of runs from Gill and Iyer

It cannot be a pleasant experience, going up against Bazball.Pat Cummins was essentially eviscerated when he deployed a deep point in the first over of the Ashes in 2023.”I must admit I’m not a huge fan,” Ricky Ponting said.”It feels a bit un-Australian,” Alastair Cook said.”They have been the first to blink,” Eoin Morgan said.At times, it feels like there is more judgment lashed out in the course of a Bazball Test than in a whole season of Real Housewives.India are the ones being picked apart right now, in a way that they really haven’t been for more than a decade of playing on their own turf. The weight of all that history is falling on Rohit Sharma’s shoulders. He has now lost as many Tests at home as his predecessor, except his ledger says seven matches in charge. Virat Kohli’s says 31.

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Jasprit Bumrah is getting serious reverse-swing.When he takes out Ben Duckett, India are asked to huddle up by their captain. A few moments previously they’d seen the big screen show that they’d made a mistake not going for DRS. Now it has been rectified. The batter who had been reprieved is gone. But Rohit wants to make sure his team seizes the opportunity. He refocuses them. The front of his trousers is stained red. He’s been the one taking care of the ball, keeping one side rough and the other shiny.Rohit Sharma got a lot right in Hyderabad, but the result amplified everything he got wrong•Associated PressAfter looking rather docile for 18 overs, India pick up two wickets in 2.1. It is their most electrifying passage of play and Rohit is a big part of it.He puts a lot of thought into his decisions. He keeps the field up to start the Test match and only after a few boundaries start flying does he ask for more cover. He tries to curb the threat of the sweep and reverse-sweep with in-out fields, having a man catching for the top edge and a man sweeping to stop the boundaries. He tries to enhance the threat of his two left-arm spinners and their natural variation by deploying them at the press box end, because the ball is keeping low from there. But he misses some stuff too.

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R Ashwin is in the middle of a lovely spell. He bowls a maiden to Ben Stokes, working him around the crease by varying his flight. The over – the 31st – ends with a generously tossed-up ball that is defended confidently. The next one begins in similar fashion, except this ball dips on the left-hander, rags past his outside edge and nearly has him out stumped. England are still trailing by 36 runs. Stokes falls in the course of this unrelenting examination.In this six-over spell, Ashwin bowls 27 dots, concedes 10 runs off the bat, and produces a false shot once every 3.14 deliveries. Rohit takes him out of the attack.Perhaps he reasons that with two right-handers now at the crease – Ollie Pope and Ben Foakes – his left-arm spinners might have a better chance of pressing the advantage. Except that isn’t how it turns out.The tea break comes and goes and Rohit still doesn’t turn to the bowlers who have, thus far, looked the most likely to take a wicket – Ashwin and Bumrah. It brings back memories of the Boxing Day Test in Centurion, where on the second day he had opted for Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna to start proceedings after lunch and they gave away 42 runs in eight overs.

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There is a line between being bold and being rash and Stokes somehow keeps moving it for England. He keeps faith in Tom Hartley, sinking overs into him, even when he’s being hit around the park, because he is going to have to bowl again and he isn’t going to get better hidden away in the outfield.Zak Crawley got the same unflinching support and he repaid it with a phenomenal 189 in the Ashes. There’s pride in Stokes’ voice when he discusses his openers now. A smile tugs at his lips almost as if he’s picturing it all in his head. “Balls that Zak plays on the front foot, Duckett plays on the back foot. So it’s very tough, I think, for bowlers to settle into a rhythm and settle into a line or length against those two.”Nearly every punt Ben Stokes took in Hyderabad came off•Associated PressIts blue-sky thinking. And it keeps coming off. Ahead of this tour, Stokes looked at one of England’s most prolific run-getters and went, nah, you’re my allrounder. “When Rooty [Joe Root] walked off with four-for [in Hyderabad] I did say to him, “see, I told ya I’d make a bowler out of ya.”When success plays out in those terms, a captain doing the little things right, like helping take care of the cricket ball, starts to fade into the background.

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A lot of Rohit’s tenure, including in the white-ball formats, has been hampered by key players missing out due to injury. It was a point of such consternation that he brought it up when asked about a lack of ICC silverware when India were in the West Indies last year. He was annoyed that he didn’t have always have access to a full squad.Here, in this series, he’s been better at rolling with the punches. He’s everywhere at India’s first training session in Visakhapatnam. First, he’s batting. Then he peels his pads off and goes to study how the rest of his men are doing. He has a lot of time for Sarfaraz Khan and some last-minute advice for Yashasvi Jaiswal. He claps the bowlers on when they create opportunities. He doesn’t look like a guy who’s even the slightest bit unhappy with his situation.”After the [first] game, the atmosphere is absolutely relaxed,” KS Bharat says. “They just told us not to panic, which we are not. The instruction is very clear. It’s a long Test series, and we have played a lot of series like this in the past and we as individuals have to focus on good things and which we want to do in the coming games and everything is chill and relaxed. We are definitely looking to play good cricket as a team, that’s the message from the captain and the coach and we are very confident about it.”Stokes proved last week that a captain’s belief can sometimes be enough to compensate for his players’ inexperience. It could be Rohit’s turn this week.

The UP fast bowler talks about his skill development, support from his family, his IPL growth, and more

Vishal Dikshit and Nikhil Sharma16-Jun-2022Yash Dayal is a fearless bowler, and he loves bowling the bouncer. On his IPL debut against Rajasthan Royals, he was smashed for two fours and a six in the space of four balls by an in-form Jos Buttler, but Dayal didn’t hold back and banged in another bouncer. He couldn’t get Buttler out, but he was not going down meekly in this battle.Nearly 10 days later, Gujarat Titans were defending 156 against Kolkata Knight Riders, and again, the left-arm quick resorted to his bouncers. He had already dismissed Shreyas Iyer and Rinku Singh, and when Andre Russell took strike, Dayal sent down three bouncers in a row to one of the most feared batters in T20 cricket. The first one Russell ducked under, the second was edged for four, and the third got Russell in an awkward position when he fended to fine leg, but Dayal had overstepped.Related

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“I will be competitive and aggressive even if the batsman is going after me, there won’t be any change in that,” Dayal told ESPNcricinfo before the Ranji Trophy semi-finals. “Backing yourself is very important. A lot of things can come to mind [while bowling], but I try to back my instincts as much as possible. Then I bowl what is my strength, like a bouncer or yorker… balls I have confidence in, and I have mastered. I try to bowl those when things aren’t working properly like when I’ve been struck for a few boundaries in an over.”I was obviously nervous [on IPL debut], but I was not looking at the batsman. I was just focusing on what to bowl. I knew there would be pressure. He [Buttler] hit one boundary, then another, and I was not thinking that Jos Buttler is batting, but which is my best ball that can get him out. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. And I was not worrying too much about what if he hits me, how many people are watching this game, etc. I just thought it’s a game, it may or may not go in my favour, but I must focus on doing my best.”I knew the bouncer is my strength. Whether it’s Jos Buttler or Andre Russell, I try to bowl my best ball and that happened too when I got Russell out, but it was a no-ball. At that time, I felt like I had committed a crime. I felt horrible. The captain and senior players motivated me, they said, ‘focus on the coming overs, it’s not like he can’t get out again.’ But at the same time, I was feeling horrible, thinking what have I done?”

Ashish Nehra was like a blessing to me. Even if I was leaking runs, the team management saw my intent and backed me for that and played me till the final. And I tried my best in every gameDayal on support from Nehra and Gujarat Titans

Dayal, 24, had played fewer than 15 T20 games when he came into the IPL and is currently playing only his 16th first-class game, the Ranji Trophy semi-final for Uttar Pradesh against Mumbai. His aggressive attitude might have leaked a few runs too many – his economy rate was 9.25 after nine IPL games for 11 wickets – but it also fetched him some big wickets: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Aiden Markram and Quinton de Kock, among others. Dayal believes he has come out of the tournament a much-improved bowler, having been under the tutelage of the former India left-arm quick Ashish Nehra, who is the head coach of Titans.”Ashish Nehra backed me a lot from the beginning,” Dayal says. “Earlier I used to try a lot of different things and experiment. But Ashish sir taught me that one must be centered and focused, and taught me some basic plans to follow without taking too much pressure and not being harsh on yourself. It’s a very competitive level of cricket so you must be smart too.”With his ability to swing the new ball and ace the slower ones and cutters, Dayal quickly became Mohammed Shami’s settled new-ball partner at Titans. Nehra, whose hands-on methods have been credited by several players for Titans’ success, had done his homework on Dayal. He knew what work was needed on him, and held separate net sessions to hone the bowler’s skills.”[He taught me] seam position for outswing, how to position the hand if you’re bowling inswing,” Dayal says, listing his learnings from Nehra. “He made me work on control a lot. He said how you deliver and execute is crucial, like how you bowl to the openers initially, what’s your plan for them, different plans for death overs.”Despite his high economy rate through the IPL, the Titans management, Dayal says, backed him and captain Hardik Pandya let him take his own decisions on the field, which further boosted his confidence.”Ashish Nehra was like a blessing to me,” Dayal says. “Even if I was leaking runs, the team management saw my intent and backed me for that and played me till the final. And I tried my best in every game.”He [Hardik] is very calm and confident, and he knows what to do at what point of the game. He is a bowler’s captain. If you have confidence in yourself, he lets you take your own decisions. That further boosts the confidence of a bowler. I would say he is the best captain I have played under.”Dayal (first from right, bottom row) was an IPL winner in his debut season•PTI Dayal was not a completely unknown entity when he was among the many uncapped players in the IPL mega auction this year. He had collected 14 wickets in seven games of the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2021-22 at an economy rate of just 3.77, the best in the team. He had already made a name for himself after his first-class debut season in 2018-19 which saw him bag as many as 30 wickets at an impressive average of 24.70 in the Ranji Trophy.As a left-arm quick, a new-ball bowler who could bowl around 135-140 kph, and possessing variations like the knuckleball and the yorker, Dayal was fast-tracked into the India squad as a net bowler in January-February this year for the home series against West Indies. Straight from domestic cricket, Dayal was now rubbing shoulders with some of the best in the world.”Rahul Dravid sir [head coach] spoke to me at times, but Paras Mhambrey [bowling coach] spoke to me the most,” Dayal recalls. “He took a lot of interest and spoke to me after every ball I’d bowl in the nets, where to bowl to what kind of batsman, what kind of variations to use etc.”

My father has helped a lot in teaching how to shine [the ball] when it gets old, how to maintain it to reverse.Yash Dayal

Dayal was new to the dressing room, but he was familiar with most of the bowling tricks already. The outswinger to right-hand batters came naturally to him, he says, and he wanted to work on the one that comes in. He had already picked up the knuckleball from TV and YouTube and honed it further with his UP senior Bhuvneshwar Kumar. With a repertoire of deliveries very few possess at such a young age, he arrived in Ahmedabad to join the India squad.”I squared up Ishan Kishan once and one other time I beat Mayank Agarwal, piercing the gap between his bat and pad when he tried to defend,” Dayal remembers with glee about his highlights in the nets. He says there wasn’t a single batter in the nets he did not beat or dismiss, either bowled or caught behind. His big weapon was the inswinger, which was once his weak point.Dayal, as a result, was already on the wishlist of a few franchises in the IPL auction. Three teams bid for him and his value shot up from his base price of INR 20 lakh to the eventual INR 3.2 crore that Titans paid for him.Dayal comes from a humble socio-economic background in Prayagraj in UP. Born to an accountant and a housewife, Dayal learned the tricks of the trade from his father, who was a right-arm fast bowler in local cricket tournaments.”My father has helped a lot in teaching how to shine [the ball] when it gets old, how to maintain it to reverse,” Dayal says of his teens when he idolised Zaheer Khan while watching him on TV and indulging in videos of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis on the internet.”I would wonder if doing such skillful things would be possible. Then I started watching their videos closely, my father helped a lot, and I started practising. Gradually there was a lot of progress and even now I haven’t mastered reverse swing. I’m still learning how to get better at it.”Dayal senior realised the potential in his son and took him to Bishop Johnson School in Prayagraj to be coached by Ghulam Murtaza, father of the UP left-arm spinner Ali Murtaza. Perhaps realizing that learning from only one coach wouldn’t be enough, he started taking his son to the city’s A division league, to compete against much older players, and to different coaches across the city.While Dayal was getting rejected in Under-14, 16 and 19 trials, he kept honing his skills and fitness. The door finally opened when he broke into the UP Under-23 squad in 2017-18, and he made his senior-level debut in the same season.Nearly four years down the line, Dayal is a regular in the UP squad now, an IPL winner, and on the fringes of the India squad. Until he breaks into that squad too, he wants to “keep working hard, keep training, and keep bowling.”

Chris Martin v Courtney Walsh, Vishwa Fernando v Jack Leach, Shannon Gabriel v Ian Botham – the debates rage on

27-May-2020Rabbit HolesAndy Zaltzman, stand-up comedian: Is there a video call for this?S Rajesh, ESPNcricinfo’s stats editor: Nope, just a text chat, I believe.Zaltzman: Okay, I’ll take off my make-up and wig and start then.Single-figure innings, the forgotten masterpieces of Test batting. In many ways, a good one-digit dig is of far greater cosmic relevance than a flashy 250. The single-figure score is something we can relate to, not some feat of otherworldly talent given only to a select elite few.I’m going to kick things off with a tribute to the Mozart of the Single-Figure Score: Chris Martin.Andrew Miller, ESPNcricinfo’s UK editor: Oh joy, we’ve hit the mother lode already.Zaltzman: Specifically, Martin’s debut innings – a staggering knock of 7 off 23 balls, in Bloemfontein in late 2000.Rajesh: Not a bad effort. Did he ever face more balls than that in an innings?Miller: Quite possibly the most misleading introduction to Test cricket since Nilesh Kulkarni in Colombo (a first-ball wicket, then zip for 195 in the rest of his miserable spell).Zaltzman: Martin batted another 103 times in Tests, and only once exceeded the 7 he made on his first appearance as a Test “batsman” (terminology subject to legal challenge). He only once faced more balls.Miller: And he only once reached double figures, 12 not out, in an innings in which he scored two fours for the only time. The second, immediately after the first, was an inside edge past the keeper.Rajesh: You’re being cruel, Miller… that was intentional.Gary Troup: probably not on Michael Holding’s Christmas list•Alan Gilbert Purcell/Fairfax Media/Getty ImagesMiller: But I’m going straight for the greatest moment of Martin’s thoroughly inept career. Wellington, versus India, in April 2009. He came to the crease without a single run in 23 matches in all cricket, dating back to the Gabba Test in November. He duly dumped Harbhajan Singh back over his head for a one-bounce four. Utterly triumphant.Zaltzman: Greatest shot in the history of cricket! His career began with a record-setting run of 48 consecutive single-figure innings. He made that one 12 against Bangladesh and had another 55 consecutive single-figure knocks. And then Martin finished his Test batting career in the most appropriate way possible – run out for 0 without facing. He had honed batting failure to such an art form that bowlers were no longer needed.Miller: He hit 15 fours in 13 years! !Rajesh: And all perfectly timed, with a control percentage of 100.Zaltzman: The South African attack in Martin’s epic debut: Donald, Pollock, Ntini, Kallis, plus Klusener and Boje. Over 1600 Test wickets among them by the end of their careers. I’d say, in context (i.e. bearing in mind whose hands were holding the bat), that innings will take some beating.Miller: For me, that is the beauty of this quest for the ultimate single-figure score. Anyone (barring maybe Martin) can rustle up a flashy 5 on demand. But as far as I’m concerned, these innings need to be heroic, or heroic failures. And you can put the emphasis on either word in that last phrase.Rajesh: Hmm, that’s a great start, Mr Zaltzman, so let me stick to a country-mate of his, from a few years before: Gary Troup.Zaltzman: Troup was on my list too. Is that why you lobbied for a 1980 start date?Rajesh: I think the scorecard will do all the talking here.Zaltzman: That scorecard is very different to Michael Holding’s version – I think 24 more New Zealand wickets fell, and he’s scrubbed the names of the umpires out in indelible marker pen.Phil Tufnell and Andy Caddick made zeroes in England’s second innings and then proceeded to share nine wickets to bowl Australia out for 104 and win the 1997 Oval Test by 19 runs•Rebecca Naden/PA Photos/Getty ImagesRajesh: Yeah, I was looking at YouTube links of the game too, but I couldn’t find a single ball from Troup’s innings, which is just so cruel.Zaltzman: Troup – 7 not out off 38 in 55 minutes v Garner, Holding and Croft, taking the score from 73 for 8 to 104 for 9 and a one-wicket win. It justified the umpiring in its unbreakable determination.Miller: Troup’s first-innings 0 is worth a mention in dispatches too.Rajesh: Yep, 57 balls and out just once (on the scorecard, at least). Calls for some celebration.Miller: So inevitably, the bulk of these will belong to plucky tailenders, forced to grind to the bitter end for victory or a draw. But precious few managed to achieve both heroism and heroic failure in the same innings. Step forward, Shannon “Why did he do dat?” Gabriel! It had absolutely everything. Ceaseless heroism to drag West Indies to a share of a hard-fought series, a tenth-wicket stand spanning seven and a half grittily endured overs, and then, the hack to end all hacks – into the timbers. A 2-1 series defeat. Immortality achieved.Zaltzman: Gabriel’s innings against Pakistan was the greatest expression of the human condition since the glory days of ancient Greek theatre. The match-losing shot was eerily reminiscent of Edmund Hillary’s first attempt to climb Everest, when, 20 metres from the top, he said, “I’m going to do a snow angel”, and slid 5000 metres back to base camp.Miller: At the opposite end of the competence spectrum, I nominate none other than Alec Stewart, Sabina Park 1998. Nine not out in 56 minutes on a pitch moulded from corrugated iron.Zaltzman: Stewart’s innings must be up there among the greatest single-figure scores by a top-order batsman. Worth a triple-hundred in Colombo.Miller: There were more visits from the physio (12) than runs from Stewart’s bat. At one stage he played forward to Curtly Ambrose and watched the ball take off like a Harrier and soar over David Williams’ gloves.Zaltzman: As I remember it, every ball Ambrose bowled to an England batsman in the 1990s did that.