Chris Woakes is happy to be among the wickets but admits it has been a “tough tour” of the West Indies having taken on the responsibility of leading the attack on some of the tamer courts in recent memory; “Obviously I would have loved to have taken more land, but it hasn’t happened”
England’s Chris Woakes admits he hasn’t been at his best on England’s tour of the West Indies
Chris Woakes says he has not been at his best on England’s tour of the West Indies after being given the responsibility of leading the attack.
While James Anderson and Stuart Broad were sacrificed in a bid to give the team a shot of new energy for the future, the Warwickshire all-rounder remained the oldest man in a fresh attack.
After working for minimal bounty in Antigua and Barbados, Woakes won three wickets in one spell on the second afternoon of the third decider in Grenada.
But, as England dragged their weary bodies off the pitch, they had allowed the West Indies to escape serious trouble on 95 from six and a promising 28-run lead on 232 from eight.
The series, and the new Richards-Botham Trophy, are still up for grabs for the next three days, but Woakes accepts he hasn’t been the best version of himself.
“It was a good opportunity and I probably didn’t take it the way I would have liked,” he said.
“It’s been a tough tour from that point of view, we haven’t taken wickets with the new ball. It’s not for lack of effort, I’ve been constantly trying to improve, it just hasn’t worked.”
“Obviously I would have loved to have taken more wickets, but it hasn’t happened. Picking three today was very good, because I will always try to do a job for the team. It would be nice to be able to do it a little more often, but it just hasn’t happened.
“It would be nice to be five, six, seven miles an hour faster, but the first two games were pretty flat and it wasn’t pretty for anybody.”
Woakes suggested that England were not put off by the fight against the West Indies, which was led by goalkeeper Josh Da Silva. He marked the first half-century of the match, after Saqib Mahmood fell to one from the first night, and stood in the stands of 49 and 55 with Alzarri Joseph and Kemar Roach.
“At 90-odd-by-six, you obviously expect to be able to get through them, but with an old, soft ball, it would always be difficult to get them down,” he said.
“Obviously we would have loved to come in with a lead, but we’re not. I think we’re pretty happy with how it’s gone.”
West Indies and England will resume the third Test at 2pm UK time on Saturday. Follow the text commentary one after another from 1:45pm on skysports.com and the Sky Sports app.
