Ben Gardner picks out Chris Woakes' 10 best performances in an England shirt following the announcement of his international retirement.
Chris Woakes has retired from international cricket, his final act ending in heartbreaking near-miss, and yet utterly befitting the man himself. His shoulder became badly dislocated sliding to prevent a boundary, putting his body on the line for his team and his teammates. Then, with England nine down and victory still a few hits away, out he strode, arm in a sling, ready to bat with his opposite hand if required. While he didn’t face a ball, each sprinted single brought with it a fresh jolt of pain as his loose limb jostled about. Woakes’ bravery turned a thrilling finish into an all-time classic. He had played the ultimate supporting act one last time, elevating the game itself as he did so.
It has been a long England career, longer than most remember. Woakes’ international debut came in 2011, before all of Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Joe Root, and Jos Buttler made their England bows. By the end of the decade, all had won the Ashes and a World Cup, and while Woakes’ claim to the urn is the weakest of the six, making his debut in the final, drawn Test of the 2013 series and not featuring in 2015, he also had an individual series, in 2023, to rank alongside the best that any of the others put up.
It also took longer than the others for Woakes to truly establish himself. It wasn’t until 2016 that he had his true breakthrough as a Test cricketer, and even after that, he was often in the shadow of Stuart Broad and James Anderson. When he did get the chance to lead the attack in the West Indies in 2022, he failed to take it, but even in that there is a certain sweetness. Woakes has always been best as a facilitator, a team balancer who can bat at No.3 in a World Cup in a pinch, who can take the new ball or find movement with the old in England.
His return during that 2023 series eased along a mollifying of the Bazball bravado. The first Test at Edgbaston will be forever remembered for a hubristic first evening declaration, while the second, for all the final day fury, was decided in a rash of short ball dismissals with England on top, Nathan Lyon off injured and the game there for the taking. Woakes added humility, skill and steel, his greatest qualities, to allow England to level the greatest Ashes series since the greatest Ashes series. It didn’t quite translate into a great late career flourish, with Woakes waning even before the Oval injury closed the curtain, but without him, the McCullum project might already be over.
Still, much of the Woakes eulogising has focussed on his everyman image, the relatable boy next door. For now, let’s celebrate Woakes’ brilliance, and pick out his ten best England performances, five each across Test and ODI cricket.
Chris Woakes’ top five England Test performances
No.5: 35* & 23, 6-70 & 5-32, vs Pakistan, Lord’s, June 9-13, 2016
The game which established Woakes as a Proper Test Cricketer. He had struggled in South Africa earlier in the year, and averaged 64 with the ball after six Tests. But 11 wickets and 65 runs against Pakistan at Lord’s, even as England lost an excellent game, proved he could get out international-calibre players, having added an extra yard on the speedgun and generating lift and movement.
No.4: 137*, 2-19 & 2-24, vs India, Lord’s, August 9-12, 2018
On a green Lord’s wicket on which India somehow picked a wrist-spinner, Woakes was flawless. He supported Anderson ably in the first innings, nicking off Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya in conditions tailor-made for English swing bowling. “I think that if we bowled like that today, with those conditions, we'd bowl most teams in the world out - because I think we were that good,” Anderson said, matter-of-factly. India had a good go at making their 107 competitive, reducing England to 131-5. Enter Woakes again, with the shine off, breezing to what would end as his only international hundred. Then another couple of wickets to round off a performance that summed up his Lord’s dominance. At the Home of Cricket, he averaged 35 with the bat and 14.38 with the ball.
No.3: 19 & 84*, 2-43 & 2-11, vs Pakistan, Old Trafford, August 5-8, 2020
Just before the Silverwood days turned ugly, Woakes and Buttler, who had a habit of rescuing England, pulled off a heist to savour. Woakes had claimed four proper wickets, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and captain Azhar Ali twice, but England were still staring at a sixth defeat in six series openers, five down, still needing 160, the pitch beginning to play tricks. In the end, the lifter that got Ollie Pope proved England’s salvation, Buttler and Woakes deciding there was no future in the grind and instead choosing to attack. Woakes edged the new ball through the slips to seal a famous win, and provide England fans a much-needed reason to cheer in the Covid fug.
No.2: 10 & 32*, 3-73 && 3-68, vs Australia, Headingley, July 6-9, 2023
Mark Wood was Player of the Match, and rightly so. It was his burst of fire of the first morning that made England feel alive again in the series, his blows after lunch on the second day that presaged a Stokes recovery salvo, and him again with the winning runs. But Woakes, playing his first game of the series, was the cool-headed supporting act that deserved co-headline status. He claimed three in each innings – all top seven batters – and then crafted an unbeaten 32, having come in with England both 80 runs and a million miles from victory. He and Wood, two great mates, walked off with arms round the shoulders, beaming, with the Ashes still beating.
No.1: 36 & 1, 3-61 & 4-50, The Oval, vs Australia, July 27-31, 2023
This was a greatest hits Test match. Zak Crawley drove the first ball for four, again. Root glided along without a care, again. And at the end of it all was Woakes, simply too good, again. Despite the ball change furore, Australia still built to within 110 runs of the target, Steve Smith, the best since Bradman, past his half-century, and that ‘new’ ball now not new in either sense. And yet Woakes beat him even as he defended, nipping away to take the edge. Broad’s swanswong bail-swap took the limelight, which suited Woakes fine. He’d already sewn up the Player of the Match and Series awards.
Chris Woakes’ top five England ODI performances
No.5: 8 & 6-45, vs Australia, Brisbane, January 30, 2011
Even when England were bad, from before the 2011 World Cup until after 2015, Woakes was still pretty good. In his second ODI, he claimed 6-45 and England still lost – though Woakes was Player of the Match. Another six-for would follow in 2014 – only Waqar Younis has claimed more ODI six-wicket hauls – just before the World Cup debacle, which ended with Woakes still fighting, unbeaten on 42. Better days would follow, with Woakes at their centre.
No.4: 4-33, vs Pakistan, Abu Dhabi, November 13, 2015
Woakes had a chance to nail down a spot as England’s ODI attack leader in a post-Anderson, and soon to be post-Broad age, but the start was a struggle. He went 299 deliveries without a wicket, a drought that began in the World Cup. But the dam burst with a flood, Woakes claiming consecutive four-fors in the UAE. He hardly looked back.
No.3: 95* & 2-56, vs Sri Lanka, Trent Bridge, June 21, 2016
Woakes’ value as an ODI batter was found as much for the peace of mind he provided England’s top seven as it was in his actual runs. Should they collapse, he could be relied upon to stage a rearguard, and so they had the confidence not to collapse too often. An innings early-ish in the Morgan years was crucial in founding this reputation. England were 82-6, still more than 200 runs from the target, when Woakes joined Buttler. Each made it into the 90s, with Woakes on 95 when the score-tying six was hit off the last ball of the 50th over… but by Liam Plunkett, Woakes again watching on having set up the deciding moment. He would never make an ODI hundred.
No.2: 2 & 3-37, vs New Zealand, Lord’s, World Cup final, July 14, 2019
Second place is Woakes’ role in the game to end all games. It was a match with many heroes. Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler at the death with the bat, Jofra Archer in the Super Over with the ball, Liam Plunkett’s cross-seam three-for, Colin de Grandhomme’s unhittable one-for. But Woakes was vital too, pinning Martin Guptill lbw to start things off and taking two more to quell the late-overs slog.
No.1: 3-20, vs Australia, Edgbaston, World Cup semi-final, July 11, 2019
Throughout the World Cup, there was a sense that the only team that could beat England was themselves. Could they manage their global tournament demons, reckon with the opportunity presented to them to overturn 44 years of hurt and re-energise a nation? Could they balance free spirit and recklessness, even when everything was on the line? In the final, they couldn’t and then they could. But they had already slayed one beast. Australia won these things as a matter of course. They turned up having not given a toss in the intervening four years and then cruised to the title. They silenced stadiums and turned finals into farces. They have now won five of the last seven World Cups. Woakes is responsible for one of the two failures, as England completed one of their most extraordinary obliterations of Australia across formats. Woakes was properly fierce. David Warner was bounced out. Peter Handscomb was nipped back. Bairstow, Roy, Root and Morgan finished it with laughable ease, but only because Woakes had set it up. There’s a case that England’s win in the World Cup semi-final and final, and in the third and fifth Test of the 2023 Ashes, are their four most important of the last 10 years. Without Woakes, arguably none would have happened.
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