Woakes focused on white ball skills

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Cricket365
April 20, 2018

England allrounder Chris Woakes is looking to put a long hard winter behind him and develop his death bowling skills in the Indian Premier League.

Woakes admits that the Ashes series and tour to New Zealand were tough on him and his England teammates.

At the Royal Challengers Bangalore he has been asked to do a job at the death something he hopes will stand him in good stead with the ODI World Cup and World T20 on the horizon.

Speaking to press during the IPL Woakes said: “The English winter was tough.

“Obviously we played a lot of Test cricket away in Australia and New Zealand, which was hard work.

“I had a really good winter with the white ball and coming here I felt in good rhythm. It’s been nice to pick up wickets, and would have been nice to go for a few less runs.

“But you know that’s the nature of the game, you are going to go for the odd boundary, particularly when you’re bowling in the Powerplay and death overs.”

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Chris Woakes of the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Yuzvendra Chahal of the Royal Challengers Bangalore celebrates the wicket of Jos Buttler of the Rajasthan Royals during match eleven of the Vivo Indian Premier League 2018 (IPL 2018) between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Rajasthan Royals held at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on the 15th April 2018.
Photo by: Vipin Pawar / IPL/ SPORTZPICS

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Woakes has been working on a knuckle ball variation like the one used to good effect by Aussie Andrew Tye but will use the ball as a surprise rather than a stock delivery.

He said: “It’s a very good delivery (knuckle ball) if you can bowl it well.

“The main thing with your variations is that you deceive the batsmen and you disguise them well.

“If you can bowl a knuckle ball but the batsman can see it very easily, then it’s not a good delivery. But if you can disguise it and it’s a surprise to the batsman, then it is a good delivery.

“It’s something which I’m continuing to work on, trying to improve my game. But yes, variations are key, particularly in these conditions with small grounds, good batsmen, good surfaces. You need to try and be able to deceive the batsmen.”