Birmingham [UK], June 30 : England's experienced pacer Chris Woakes has issued a captain Ben Stokes warning and cautioned about the threat that he poses with the Dukes ahead of the second Test against India at Edgbaston in Birmingham for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
With the ball, Stokes emerged as England's biggest threat in the first innings and controlled the flow of the game with his precise line and lengths. He rattled India's top order and scalped priceless wickets of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Karun Nair and Shardul Thakur to return with figures of 4/66 in 15 overs.
Stokes led from the front, putting in the hard yards with the ball to set the tone for England, who eventually forced India to surrender to a 5-wicket defeat by gunning down a 371-run target, their second-highest chase in the format.
"Yeah, he was incredible without him having played a load of cricket leading into the Test match, for him to come in and do what he did and hit his straps at a good pace. He's obviously fit and lean at the minute, looking really strong, which is great for us," Woakes told reporters in a press conference.
"Obviously, we want him to play every test match that we play. But also, obviously, we want him to be that seamer who can bowl his overs and do what we know he can do, which he did last week. I thought he was amazing on a good pitch. He looked threatening every time he had the ball, the newer ball or the older ball. I think that's good to have. We all know what Stokes is capable of, but it's great to have your leader being able to grab the ball like that and showing you the way sometimes," he added.
Stokes didn't enjoy the luxury of much game time during the buildup to the series. After tearing his left hamstring in New Zealand back in December, Stokes returned in the one-off Test against Zimbabwe last month at Trent Bridge.
To be fit and fire all cylinders for England this summer, Stokes took various measures, which included discarding alcohol during his last injury rehabilitation. Woakes believes the amount of hard work the English skipper has put in is echoed in his performance.
"So, yeah, we know what he's capable of, and it was great that he showed that last week at Headingley. It was really good. Yeah, I mean, he doesn't do things in half-measures, does he? When he's training, he's training. If he has time off, he has time off. But when he's there and he's doing his work, it's a real pleasure to watch sometimes," Woakes said.
"Yeah, I could sense it was coming. He's certainly been training hard. You can see the physical state he's in. He's in really good condition. I think, obviously, the injuries that he's had, he's probably just doubled down on his fitness to make sure he's in the best shape possible to be able to lead this team at his best," he continued.
"He certainly did that last week, and hopefully, there's more of that to come for the rest of this series. I look at the best players in the world, and they're always trying to get better, and he's always been the same, Ben," he added.
Ahead of the second Test, which is scheduled to kick off on Wednesday, England named an unchanged XI with hopes of getting a firm grip on the series.
England playing XI for the second Test against India: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.