Make yourself undroppable, Cook urges Woakes
England captain Alastair Cook has urged all-rounder Chris Woakes to seize his chance and make himself undroppable in the second Test against Sri Lanka at Durham on Friday.
Woakes, who comes into the side for the injured Ben Stokes, has yet to hit top gear for England, taking eight wickets at a rate of 63.75 and making 129 runs at an average of 21.50 in six Test appearances.
But the 27-year-old conjured a timely reminder of his ability with a career-best haul of 9-36 for Warwickshire on Monday, and Cook believes he is just one dazzling display from becoming difficult to discard.
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“I think Chris is one of those guys we have not seen the best of in international cricket,” he said.
“He is that performance away from feeling comfortable and thinking he is good enough. There is no doubt in my mind, facing him in the nets.
“I am really excited about him playing. He has the next couple of games, with Ben out. He can make selection really hard.”
Woakes’s position has parallels with that of Alex Hales going into the first Test, where the opener answered his critics with a gutsy 86 that helped England win by an innings and 88 runs.
“Until you have done it at a certain level you always have that bloke on your shoulder, or people just doubting you,” Cook added. “That is natural, so last week will have done [Hales] the world of good.”
Cook, who is 20 short of becoming the first Englishman to amass 10,000 Test runs, confirmed Woakes would bat at No8, with Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali moving up the order.
Stokes underwent surgery on torn knee cartilage this week and is due to miss the remaining two matches of the series as well as the limited-overs contests that follow.