Following a soaring 12 months of international cricket on a personal level, and with attitudes having changed towards the IPL, Woakes is one of eight England cricketers to feature this year, with Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy, Jos Buttler, Sam Billings, Chris Jordan and the short-form specialist, Tymal Mills, also missing from the opening exchanges of the English county summer.
Woakes claims he will put the cash to one side, with the cricketing gains outweighing the financial ones as he seeks to improve his game before this summer’s 50-over Champions Trophy.
“It does feel strange going away this time of year but at the same time I see it as a chance to improve myself as a cricketer and put Warwickshire on the map,” says Woakes, whose side open up against Gujarat Lions in Rajkot. “For a local lad who has come through the ranks to be playing in a huge tournament that’s watched around the world is a good thing. It’s a one-off opportunity I can’t really turn down.
“I hope to go to that next level and develop my white-ball cricket across the board really. Death bowling is an area of my game that has improved dramatically, I think, but to be considered a world-class death bowler you have to do it against the best players in the IPL in high pressure situations. Even though I’ve come out on the right side of a few situations in the past there are things that I could do a lot better than I am at the minute.”
It was a high pressure situation at the death back in January that was likely responsible for his IPL payday – the proceeds from which, he jokes, will go towards paying off debts from his recent wedding – when India needed 16 from the final over of the third one-dayer in Kolkata. Woakes shut the game down despite his first two balls being smoked for six and four by Kedar Jadhav.
“To do it in Kolkata at their home ground in front of their home fans and with the owners probably watching must have helped,” says Woakes, whose prospects were doubtless aided further by a private endorsement from the franchise’s former head coach, England’s Trevor Bayliss, and the year-long doping ban handed down to their West Indies all-rounder, Andre Russell, just 10 days later.
That Woakes, who has already been dubbed ‘the English Knight’ by his new side, is riding so high at present is testament to his own transformation over the past year and one that he readily admits was unexpected when he left the tour of South Africa in January 2016 with doubts he would get another crack at international cricket.