'Amazing what six months can do for you'

Until this week, the closest Chris Woakes had come to a Test on his home ground was working with the groundstaff during the famous 2005 Ashes encounter, when the Warwickshire Academy players were asked to help with the covers.

And if, six months ago, you had said that he would be the talk of Birmingham ahead of this Edgbaston Test there would have been some quizzical looks.

Woakes finished the South Africa tour dispirited and frustrated: after Centurion, where he took 1 for 144, six Tests had brought eight wickets at an unflattering average of 63.75. When there was a spot for a spare pace bowler at the start of the summer it went to Jake Ball. Woakes knew he had slipped down the pecking order. It could have been a summer in the county game.

Then Ben Stokes' knee went in the opening Test against Sri Lanka at Headingley, England wanted as close to like-for-like as they could find and Woakes took a career-best 9 for 36 against Durham.

Now, four matches into his comeback, Woakes has taken 26 wickets at 13.84, 18 of them in the two Tests against Pakistan, 11 at Lord's when he filled the hole left by James Anderson's absence. He has shown he is far more than just injury cover for both Anderson and Stokes, his form with bat and ball securing a first-choice place in the XI.

On Wednesday or Thursday, weather permitting, he will mark his batting guard or measure out his run in front of the stands that he used to sit in as a kid. Somewhere among the crowd will be friends (plenty of them, judging by the ticket requests he has received over recent days) and family - including his father, Roger, who is unable to watch his son overseas due to suffering from claustrophobia, which prevents him from flying - those he used to come down to the ground with when an England career was still a far-off dream.

In a turn of fate, the opening day of the Test will come ten years and a day since Woakes' first-class debut against West Indies A on this ground in a Warwickshire side that also included Moeen Ali. He took the wickets of Sylvester Joseph, Jason Mohammad and Sewnarine Chattergoon while making 4 batting at No. 9.

Now, after 10 Tests, he sits with a batting average of 35.00 and bowling average of 25.58. The sample size remains small, but the turnaround has been remarkable.

"It will be a special week," he says, "after Centurion it would be silly to think I'd have the summer I have had. I had doubts that I may not play Test cricket again unless there were quite a few injuries, but I'd have been disappointed if Centurion was my last game because I knew I had so much more to offer.

"I actually bowled well in the first Test in Durban and probably didn't get the rewards, had Hashim Amla dropped. Who knows if that had gone in, you end up getting a five-for. It just wasn't working for me. I then had four weeks off without playing and didn't bowl well in the nets leading into the last Test. I just didn't feel as good as I could have been, so it wasn't a great position to be going into a Test match.

"I was scratching my head a little, especially after Centurion. 'I can do it at first-class level, why aren't I showing it at the next level?' But it's amazing what six months can do for you."

There hasn't been any magical formula to Woakes' summer of success. However, the increase in pace has been noticeable and now he has been able to marry it with accuracy helped, he says, by not bowling day-in day-out at county level.

"I fell into a trap in my early years of just trying to pitch it up, swing it and conserve some energy because I knew I'd have to bowl 25 overs a day. We all know the schedule is crazy. Now I bowl a little less but at full tilt, but the most important thing is I use my front arm more and my run up is a bit quicker.

"It sounds two simple things, but to put them into practice is actually quite difficult. I'd put on the pace quite quickly but my accuracy suffered. It took a while, it didn't happen overnight, probably the last two years."

Still, the margins between success and failure remain small. Woakes, himself, has barely noticed what others - notably assistant coach Paul Farbrace - believes has made a key difference.

"Farby feels I've bowled a fraction fuller this summer. In previous years he felt I was a little bit safe, bowling a little bit short, worried about getting driven or attacking the stumps. I haven't tried to do it on purpose but that might be the case."

Such has been Woakes' rise, that he is being seen as an integral part for England this week by his more senior team-mates. Stuart Broad has spoken about using his local knowledge but, in the slightly deferential manner that is reflective of Woakes' character, he says there is not a massive amount of insider tips to be given out.

Warwickshire have sometimes played two spinners here this season, but Woakes expects more grass to be left on than for county games, although the surface certainly looked less green than last year's Ashes encounter.

"You generally want to bowl a bit fuller. It's all about conditions, I know people say that about Lord's but it's massive here. Sometimes you go through periods when the ball does nothing because the sun is out then in overcast conditions it can be completely different. It almost looks a different colour when the clouds come out."

With or without cloud cover, Woakes is proving himself a Test bowler.