‘Raising bat at Lord’s was boyhood dream’

LONDON: Having endured frustrations of a long lay-off due to an injury, Chris Woakes felt “incredible” after realising his “boyhood dream” of scoring a Test hundred at the ‘Home Of Cricket’.
Replacing Ben Stokes wasn’t an easy job but Woakes made the most of his opportunity by getting Indian captain Virat Kohli on the second day and followed it up with his maiden Test hundred on his international comeback.
England maintained their stranglehold on India with a 250-run first innings lead in the second Test against India. “That feeling of raising your bat to a standing ovation at Lord’s is a bit of a boyhood dream. But it’s an incredible feeling,” a visibly elated Woakes told media persons after the end of third day’s play. Woakes recently became a father and said that his teammates had asked him about customary “baby celebration” but it all became a “bit of blur”, once he achieved the coveted landmark.
“The lads did ask me actually where was the baby celebration, but for some reason, that wasn’t really on my mind. I didn’t really have any ideas of how I was going to celebrate, and didn’t really know how to – but I’m obviously just delighted. It’s still a bit of a blur. It seems to go so fast – 30 seconds of raising your bat feels literally like a blink of the eye,” Woakes said. (PTI)