Chris Woakes Shifts Gears Mid-Overs From Spin Surprise to Crucial Wicket in England

The incident occurred in the seventh over of Sri Lanka’s first innings when the on-field umpires, due to bad light, told England captain Ollie Pope to bowl spin with Woakes two balls into his fourth over.

Consequently, Woakes had to make a surreal transition and decided to bowl as an off-spinner, leaving Joe Root in splits.

The right-arm pacer started well as a spinner, allowing only a single on his first two deliveries.

Chris Woakes, however, faltered on his third delivery as a spinner as he pitched the ball short, allowing Kusal Mendis to pull it towards the fine-leg region for a four.

He reciprocated with an arm ball, which Mendis respectfully worked for a single towards deep cover.

Soon after the end of the seventh over, it began lighter and the umpires allowed the resumption of pace bowling.

As a result, Chris Woakes resumed to bowl as a pacer and soon struck with an important scalp of Kusal Mendis, who managed to score 13 off 14 deliveries.

Chris Woakes set up Mendis with a good-length delivery in the channel and the ball, upon pitching, swung away just enough to take the shoulder of Mendis’ bat and flew to Harry Brook, who clung onto the chance in the slip cordon.

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When this story was filed Sri Lanka was 86/3 in 15 overs in response to England’s 325.

Interim captain Pope led England from the front with a marathon 154-run knock, followed by opening batter Ben Duckett, who made a brisk 86 up the order on the opening day.

The rest of the England batters struggled against Sri Lanka bowlers and could manage modest contributions.

Milan Rathnayake starred with the ball for Sri Lanka, picking up three wickets, while Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara and Dhananjaya de Silva bagged two wickets each.