Ashes 2023: Selfless Chris Woakes keeps England's rescue act alive

It was perfectly fitting that on a day when Chris Woakes was England’s standout performer, his exploits were overshadowed by Stuart Broad reaching the extraordinary milestone of 600 Test wickets.

Perhaps nothing could have been as succinct an encapsulation of his career, often diligently excelling in the shadows while a more storied teammate receives more praise and adulation.

This is not to denigrate Broad who, not for the first time in his career, is enjoying an excellent Ashes series – the wickets of Usman Khawaja and Travis Head crucial breakthroughs for England on a day they marginally shaded.

However this was a day that belonged to Woakes, he finished it with figures of 4/52, not just ensuring that England’s decision to bowl first did not blow up in their faces but also keeping their high-wire Ashes comeback act alive.

Woakes started the series not in England’s side and without any enormous clamour for him to be so. He finished Day One at Old Trafford taking the second new ball for England and arguably one of the men most responsible for sparking his team’s turnaround in fortunes in this series.

Even on that front, Woakes has been overshadowed by the more eye-catching, glamorous option – his six top order wickets and nerveless second innings batting were at the heart of England’s victory in the last Test, only to be slightly trumped by Mark Wood’s fearsome 90+mph barrage and freewheeling six-hitting.

You sense though that Woakes, as long as he is helping England to wins in international cricket, does not begrudge the lack of limelight he receives – he is after all a man who has in the past removed himself from the IPL auction, and all the lucrative possibilities it could offer, just to give himself a chance of getting back into England’s Test plans.

Here at Old Trafford he was the man most responsible for ensuring England remained in the fight for this Test and the Ashes as a whole. Time and again he struck just when his team most needed it, helping them to finish the day probably just ahead with the score at 299/8.

Having seen off Stuart Broad and survived a few streaky early moments, David Warner might have thought his luck was changing in this series – he could not though survive Woakes’ opening spell.

With the first ball of his fourth over he struck, Warner powerless to do anything but edge the ball behind driving as Woakes artfully pushed the ball across him – Australia 61/2, a mini-recovery nipped in the bud.

Woakes gets Warner driving and he’s gone!