“It makes me feel incredibly old,” Woakes said at Lord’s, as Anderson’s farewell was kicking into action. “But it’s a lovely occasion. This week, it’s just been really nice to be a part of Jimmy’s last game. I’ve been very lucky to have played for a long period of time with him, and the lessons and little nuggets that I’ve learned from him across the years have certainly made me a better player. I feel very fortunate to have bowled with England’s best ever.
“I’ve looked at Stu and Jimmy evolve as they’ve got older, and I still hope that I can potentially do the same.”
Chris Woakes believes he can still improve at 35
“He’s always been there at mid-off, giving little words of advice,” Woakes added. “He assesses conditions and pitches better than anyone I’ve seen. The way he talks about what deliveries are working on the surface so early on is just incredible, really. It’s very easy to think that that’s just a given and you just pick it up, but actually he is the best at doing that. I didn’t bowl a wobble-ball until Jimmy started talking to me about it. So that’s been huge.”
Perhaps the most tangible perk of seniority will come when he gets to mark out his run-up at Trent Bridge, for what – fittingly enough – will be his 50th Test. For arguably the first time in his career, certainly on home soil, Woakes can look forward to having first-choice of ends, not that it especially mattered to him in the Lord’s Test just gone.
“I’ve not even thought about that!” he joked. “Maybe … that’d be nice. But it worked out all right this game because Jimmy prefers this [Pavilion] end and I actually do prefer the other end [Nursery]!”
In terms of his on-field demeanour, however, Woakes insisted he would not seek to change the way he goes about his game, but acknowledged there might be some subtle shifts in how he operates.
“Naturally, you’re going to see a lot more new players being given opportunities to move [England] forward,” he said. “But I’ll try and give 100%, and try and do my role as well as I can for the team.
“Obviously, it’ll be slightly different if I was given the new ball,” he added. “The majority of my career I’ve come on first-change so that’s something that I’ll maybe need to get my head around moving forward. Other than that, you try and deliver your skills and, whenever there is a new guy coming into the team, you still try and pass on a little bit of knowledge.
“I’ve been around for long enough to be able to hopefully do that. Maybe I need to do that a little bit more now that Stu and Jim have finished – particularly on the field more so than off it. That’s probably the only big thing.”
Off the field, of course, there won’t be quite so much change around the dressing-room. Anderson is staying on in a bowling mentor role for the rest of the West Indies series, with a view to it becoming a more permanent position should he feel it is a suitable fit for the next step of his career.
“I’m looking forward to not getting a spray when I dive over one,” Woakes joked. “Obviously, it’ll be different, but I think it will also be very, very good. He obviously won’t have that emotion that he has when he’s out there playing and being a primary bowler for the team. So I think he’ll be very good in that role as well, for not just the summer but hopefully moving forwards.”
Whether Woakes himself is part of the team’s long-term plans remains to be seen. His prowess in home conditions is undeniable, not least in last summer’s Ashes, in which he claimed the Compton-Miller Medal after helping to turn the series on its head after 19 wickets in the final three Tests.
“I just don’t rule anything out,” he said. “Throughout my England career, I’ve just looked at the very next game, the very next series, and tried to be in the best shape possible. As soon as you start looking too far ahead, you get you get caught off-guard, and all of a sudden, that’s a million miles away and you forget what you need to do in that in that present moment in time.
“It’d be hard for me to stand here and say I’ll be the opening bowler in that Ashes,” he conceded. “Obviously my away record probably isn’t as good as my home. But at the same time, I’ve looked at Stu and Jimmy evolve as they’ve got older, and I still hope that I can potentially do the same. But for now, I’m looking at Trent Bridge, and it’s as far as I can look really.”
Woakes’ return to the England set-up has come after a tough few months. He flew home early from the IPL following the death of his father in May, then took a short break from Warwickshire duties in the aftermath having been left out of England’s T20 World Cup squad.
“It was one of those things in life that you probably never really think’s going to happen until it does,” he said. “Trying to get back into cricket, it has been quite hard to focus on the day job but once you get back out there and particularly putting on the England whites, it reminds you how lucky we are to do what we do.
“Seeing Jimmy this week, you know it doesn’t last forever and you have to try and enjoy every moment that you’re a part of this team. My approach at the minute is to put things in perspective, and just be happy to be here and try and give 110%.”
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket
