‘Kohli’s arrival will raise standard of county cricket’ – Woakes
England’s Chris Woakes is not convinced that having the likes of Virat Kohli in the County Championship would compromise his team’s chances when India come visiting in the summer. In fact, Kohli’s participation would only make England’s domestic structure stronger, the all-rounder said.
Kohli had a torrid time when he last toured England in 2014, scoring just 134 runs in five Tests at 13.40, easily the worst performance of his career. Reports have linked him to a possible stint in county cricket in June, with the India captain himself reiterating his desire to get some experience of English conditions.
“Playing county cricket will help me improve my game,” said Kohli. "It's just about giving yourself more opportunity to get used to the conditions that you are not used to.”
England great Bob Willis was among those not in favour of giving Kohli a chance to acclimatise to English conditions, saying he should "suffer and average 30 in England as he has done before".
But Woakes, who plays under Kohli for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League, didn’t share those views.
"If the counties are willing to sign Indian players heading into a series, then so be it," said Woakes.
Cheteshwar Pujara, Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron are the Indians in the county season this time.
"You need to be able to deceive batsmen."
— ICC (@ICC) April 20, 2018
Chris Woakes explains what it takes to bowl at the death. https://t.co/vvWsQG3rSN pic.twitter.com/BRvcMySXED
"The good thing about county cricket is that we get really good overseas players, which makes the standard of the county game stronger,” said Woakes.
"Getting the opportunity for young guys to bowl at the likes of Virat Kohli can only help the county game and make it a better competition for guys to play in and a better experience for guys going into the international arena."
Woakes, though, hoped Kohli wouldn’t benefit too much from the experience.
“Hopefully he doesn’t score too many runs, so he’s not in too good a form come the series," he said with a smile. "But like I said, if it’s improving the standard of the county game, then so be it. I don’t really have a problem with it."