Woakes on Bazball: 'Would be daft for us to rip it up and start again'

Chris Woakes believes moving away from Bazball wouldn't be a prudent move for England, despite their 4-1 loss at the hands of Australia in the recently-concluded Ashes. Woakes, now plying his trade in the franchise world, said that taking on a new approach would ruin a lot of good work done during the Ben Stokes-Brendan McCullum era.

Woakes, however, said that the most disappointing part of the Ashes loss was how the side was packed with talent, but couldn't quite win the "key moments".

"I think it'd be daft to kind of rip it up and start again," Woakes said in an interview with ESPNcricinfo. "We have done so many good things over the last three years. We won some extremely exciting Test matches. I think people forget that before they took over, we were a pretty poor side. We were not winning games of cricket. I think at the same time now, obviously we've had a poor series in Australia and haven't got quite over the line in the big series, but they're close. To rip it up now would be a bit daft.

"It didn't go really well in Australia obviously. I think we had the team to be able to compete. The guys are extremely talented. I think maybe going to Australia for the first time for a lot of them, maybe got exposed a little bit to the conditions. Then you realize that you have to back it up day after day after day. They didn't win those key moments. I think particularly as a bowling attack, they probably didn't quite have the experience and the know-how to perform on those surfaces."

Woakes said that his decision to retire wouldn't have changed irrespective of his recovery from the shoulder injury that he sustained in July last year. He turned up for the MI Emirates side in the ILT20 in December. He is now in Dhaka to play for Sylhet Titans in the BPL.

"As soon as I made my statement of retiring, I'd made my decision. I was kind of happy to make that decision, regardless of what happened with regards to injury and recovery. But I recovered probably a little bit quicker than I expected. I expected it to probably cause me a few more issues than what it did. I worked hard on recovery and fitness so to get back was pleasing. Once I made my decision, I was never going to go back on that."

Woakes, who has 16 wickets from two Ashes tours in Australia, joked that the surfaces this time tempted him. "I have been to Australia many times but I have not bowled on wickets like that. So, it is a bit of a shame that I missed that one. But that's the way it goes, and the game has changed a little bit, and certainly the wickets have changed in Australia, definitely," he said.

Woakes said that he probably has two more years of franchise and domestic cricket in him before he is likely to turn his gaze towards coaching. "I would love to (be involved with England). I obviously I still want to play for at least a couple more years particularly franchise opportunities and a bit of county cricket. In the future that's something which might excite me to (be involved)," he said.

Woakes also predicted that two more good seasons could be needed before Joe Root toppled Sachin Tendulkar's Test runs record. Root, who recently turned 35, is 1,979 runs behind the Indian batter.

"I mean, he's certainly got a chance. I kind of hope so for Joe, because obviously he's a friend of mine and I've watched him go about his business. He's a world class operator. He's done it across all conditions. Longevity is the most special thing in my eyes. To be able to consistently improve. People nowadays are constantly looking at ways to expose you.

"To be able to continue to do that and perform is just pretty special. I'd like to see him do it. Obviously, he's got to have a couple of pretty good years, but on current form, there's no reason why not."