(Reuters) – England should transfer on from all-rounder Chris Woakes for overseas excursions, former England batter Geoffrey Boycott stated on Monday.
Woakes got here in for heavy punishment within the first innings of the drawn first check between England and West Indies in Antigua, conceding 88 runs and taking one wicket.
He additionally didn’t impress with the ball in England’s 4-0 Ashes drubbing in Australia, taking six wickets at a mean of 55.33 throughout three matches.
“For a very long time now England cricket lovers have seen for themselves that Woakes is just not a wicket-taking bowler on tour. Move on,” Boycott wrote within the Daily Telegraph.
“In England, with the Dukes ball and bowling in our seamer-friendly situations, he is excellent and his wickets value 22 runs. Outside England his wickets value 54.
“With figures like that he’s bowling the opposition batsmen in, not out. I get the very fact he’s a pleasant lad and may get runs down the order however bowlers should be picked to take wickets and batsmen to make runs.”
Boycott additionally prompt that the 33-year-old Woakes’ inclusion within the squad was opposite to Andrew Strauss’s name for “new faces” within the England set-up.
“By leaving James Anderson and Stuart Broad at residence Strauss stated this was the tour to provide a possibility to new guys and discover out if they will step as much as check match cricket,” Boycott stated. “Really?
“We won’t be taught something about Saqib Mahmood whereas he sits on his bottom within the dressing room, carrying drinks and bowling within the nets. England should cease losing time on Woakes and present some ahead considering.”
The second check begins in Barbados on March 16 and might be adopted by a recreation in Grenada (March 24-28). The three-match collection kinds a part of the ICC World Test Championship.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)
