Chris Woakes may answer to the nickname of ‘Wizard’, but the secret of his success is his determination to keep his feet planted firmly to the ground
George Dobell in Barbados06-Mar-2017Ashley Giles tells a story of going round to Chris Woakes’ flat when Woakes was a teenager who had just broken through at Warwickshire.It was a Friday night and Giles was keen to deliver something to Woakes before he went out for the evening. But when he arrived, he found Woakes settled in for a night on the sofa, wearing compression stockings and drinking a protein shake.Woakes, you see, had decided to give a career in professional sport everything he had. And he knew that, to maximise his talent, he would need to make sacrifices and demonstrate a discipline that most young men could not imagine. Giles admits to being both impressed and surprised. He has, on many occasions, said that of all the cricketers he has known, it is Woakes’ character he would like to clone.It was always Chris Woakes’ temperament that stood out.He had talent, for sure. But lots of players have that. It’s having the strength of body and mind to make the most of that talent that tends to define who makes it and who falls away.Take the example of Naqaash Tahir. He emerged at Warwickshire at about the same time as Woakes. Blessed with a wonderful, seemingly natural ability to move the ball both ways – he once made a batsman as good as Michael Vaughan look foolish in a game at Edgbaston – he looked set for a fine future. Woakes, slightly younger and with less extravagant skills, was very much in his shadow.But for various reasons, many of them fitness-related, Naqaash fell away. And, in his place, Woakes emerged as Warwickshire’s most promising young bowler.Woakes had to work hard to earn the skills that would bring him success. Graduating to the Warwickshire youth system having been steeped in cricket from his dad and sports-mad older brothers, he was fortunate to have Steve Perryman, once a fine skilful bowler himself, teach him the basics of swing. Perryman persuaded his bowlers to carry a yo-yo with them to drill into them the correct wrist position. Woakes, who broke into the Warwickshire team as a 17-year-old swing bowler, still texts him a message of thanks from time to time. He’s not one to forget where he came from.Chris Woakes and Joe Root sealed victory with an unbroken century stand•Getty ImagesLater he learned he would have to add pace to his swing if he was to trouble good batsmen on the flat surfaces that proliferate in international cricket. But while we often hear talk of players needing to ‘add a yard’, in reality it rarely happens. Woakes was determined, though, and prepared to work hard for months to reach his target. While there was a certain amount of fitness work involved – tellingly Warwickshire’s strength and conditioning coach, Chris Armstrong, was the best man at his wedding – it had more to do with technique. In particular, he runs in harder and uses his front arm more.Inevitably there were bad days. But whether they were injury-related – he is reluctant to talk about his knee problems, but he is probably never pain-free when he bowls these days – or due to dips in form, he reacted with a phlegmatic determination that rendered every setback a learning experience.One of the more dramatic ones came in a T20 quarter-final against Kent in 2008. Still a teenager at the time, Woakes conceded 27 off three legitimate balls (there were several illegitimate ones in there, too) and was removed from the attack by the umpires for bowling two head-high full-tosses. It cost his side the game in front of a large crowd and might have broken a lesser man. But not Woakes. Within a week, he had helped his side win a Championship match at Uxbridge by claiming a five-wicket haul in the second innings.For a long time, his progress appeared blocked. It is his misfortunate, to some extent, to be playing in the same era as Ben Stokes, who remains first-choice allrounder, and the likes of James Anderson, who remains first-choice swing bowler. It has meant Woakes has had to wait longer and work harder. After a disappointing tour to South Africa this time last year, he admitted he feared his Test career, in particular, might be over.It is telling that it was through injury to Stokes that Woakes won a recall. But having seized his chance in both ODI and Test cricket in the summer of 2016, the pair are playing together regularly. It might represent England’s best allround pairing since the brief and beautiful moment late in the summer of 1977 when Ian Botham and Tony Greig played together.Woakes continues to fly under the radar, though. While Stokes gained headlines around the world for his vast price in the IPL auction, Woakes appeared as a footnote for the very good price he attracted. While Stokes breaks records (Lord’s and Cape Town, for example) with his big hitting, Woakes chips away with bat and ball. While Stokes’ name is up in lights, Woakes seem destined for the role of supporting player. And quite happy he is with it, too. You wonder if Stokes might also prefer to be slightly less high-profile, off the pitch at least.We shouldn’t have been surprised by Woakes’ matchwinning batting in Antigua. He is a good enough batsman to have made his Test debut (in 2013) at No. 6 and good enough to average more in first-class cricket (36.28 to 34.42) than Stokes. It’s not long since Woakes made an unbeaten 95 to salvage a tie against Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge, either. While it is true he has yet to make a limited-overs half-century at county level, he arguably looks a more composed, more technically correct batsman than anyone from No. 4 down in the England limited-overs squad. Woakes actually averages less with the ball in first-class cricket than Stokes, too. His ODI and Test batting average are slightly lower than Stokes’ but so are his bowling averages.None of this is meant to suggest Woakes is a better cricketer than Stokes. It just reinforces the view that, while Stokes is now an undisputed star, Woakes remains slightly underrated and unappreciated by comparison. At least in the media. England – and their captains, in particular – know they are blessed to have the pair of them in the same teams. His team-mates refer to him as Wiz (short for wizard); a nickname derived from a darts tournament on an U19 tour a decade ago: Chris ‘The Wizard’ Woakes. It has stuck.Life is good for Wiz at present. He married his long-term girlfriend, Amie, a few weeks ago. And, after a wedding attended by many of his Warwickshire and England colleagues (James Taylor was an usher; Woakes will perform the same role at Taylor’s wedding later in the year) and a brief honeymoon in New York, he attracted a huge bid in the IPL auction. He is living his dreams though; with classic British understatement, he described the last few weeks as “memorable” and Sunday’s victory performance as “nice”.”I’d like to think I’m doing a reasonable job at the minute,” he replied when asked if he was confident of retaining his place in the ICC Champions Trophy side. “I’d like to think if I’m fit and firing I’d keep my role I’m doing at the minute.”But Woakes might argue that he has not ‘made it’ yet. His record outside England remains modest (he averages 63.75 with the ball in Test cricket outside England and Wales; at home he averages 22.45) and he has yet to play a major role in an Ashes victory or a global limited-overs triumph. Both challenges loom in the near future.He has, in recent times, blocked a few people on Twitter for suggesting he is boring. And it’s true, if we define ‘character’ by the number of controversies a player experiences – the amount of bar-room fights or fall-outs with team-mates, umpires or opponents – then Woakes might seem pretty uninteresting.But if we respect the quiet pursuit of excellence, if we respect reliability and composure and discipline, then Woakes should set the template for the perfect sportsman. He isn’t boring. He’s professional and private; dedicated and decent; modest and mature. He was exactly the man to come in for England in a crisis in Antigua and exactly the man Eoin Morgan and Joe Root will know they can rely upon in the Champions Trophy and the Ashes later this year.
