Chris Woakes has taken “huge confidence” from the four wickets he collected in England’s opening Tri-Series defeat to Australia yesterday.
The 25-year-old seamer carried on where he left off in Sri Lanka, when he was the leading wicket-taker in the seven-match series, by returning figures of 4-40 in eight overs at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Woakes bowled Aaron Finch via an inside edge with the new ball before returning at the death to scare the hosts, removing skipper George Bailey, centurion David Warner and dangerman Glenn Maxwell in the space of two individual overs.
Despite his late flurry of scalps failing to prevent Australia from completing a three-wicket win, Woakes’ performance certainly lifted his spirits.
The Warwickshire all-rounder said: “It gives me huge confidence. It is nice to pick up those scalps, they are obviously great players and have showed they can do it in international cricket for quite a long time.
“It was great for me, but it was unfortunate that it was on the back of a defeat. I feel like it is coming out pretty well at the minute, hopefully that can continue.”
We have chatted to @crwoakes19 in Brisbane about his fine form & #Eng bouncing back in #triseries . Video online soon. pic.twitter.com/qGys7np5nX
— England Cricket (@ECB_cricket) January 17, 2015
Without injured pacemen James Anderson and Stuart Broad for the tour of Sri Lanka due to injury, Woakes stepped up to the plate with 14 wickets in seven matches.
Although Broad was fit to feature yesterday, Anderson was missing and Woakes again shared new-ball duties with Steven Finn.
And Woakes is relishing the role of opening the bowling, saying: “I quite enjoyed it. I felt like I bowled reasonably well with the new ball, as well as I have done on tour so far.
“It is nice doing it against Australia in the first ODI. I enjoyed it and hopefully it can continue. Whatever role I am given in the team, I will do that as well as I can.
“Whenever you get given the opportunity to play for England, whether it be a warm-up game or an ODI, you are trying to do your best to cement that place. That is no different for me.
“I felt like yesterday I bowled pretty well and got my rewards at the back end, which was nice. It is a good opportunity for me to try and cement my place in the team for the World Cup.”
England’s defeat to Australia, who collected a bonus point for completing their run-chase inside 40 overs, puts pressure on them to respond against India on Tuesday.
But Woakes believes Peter Moores’ side, boosted by a century from new skipper Eoin Morgan yesterday, are still buoyant.
He added: “We have still got three games to try and put that right and put that full performance together.
“We had two fantastic warm-up games and everyone was coming in full of confidence, so one defeat is not going to knock us back.
“We know we have got to turn it around against India on Tuesday. Everyone is pulling in the right direction to try and get that win for us. There are some positives to take out of the game.”
Meanwhile, ex-England captain Andrew Flintoff is set to meet up with his former team during practice at The Gabba tomorrow.