Chris Woakes claims that the former Indian pacer played a significant role in improving his game

After an extremely successful IPL stint last season with the KKR franchise, sensational English speedster Chris Woakes was amongst the priority targets in this year’s player auction. And as expected, the 28-year old witnessed some intense bidding war surrounding him. Woakes was eventually picked up by the Royal Challengers Bangalore for a whopping INR 7.4 crores.

Woakes will be joining a star-studded lineup at the franchise that will be led by the charismatic Virat Kohli. The English cricketer will be joining the ranks of AB de Villiers, fellow countryman Moeen Ali amongst others and Woakes believes sharing the dressing room with such greats will provide him with a great learning curve.

After playing under the captaincy of Gautam Gambhir, Woakes will now be tested under Kohli. Woakes can come in handy down the order with his quickfire cameos, an option that Virat will be ecstatic to have.

According to ESPNcricinfo, speaking of his upcoming stint under the tutelage of  Kohli, Woakes said, “It will be interesting to see how Kohli goes about his business. He’s a world-class player, one of the best if not the best in the white-ball game so that will be exciting to see how he goes about it.”

He added, “Obviously, you get a perception of a guy playing against them so to be in the same dressing-room as him, de Villiers – all these guys – it will be great to learn from them.”

Balaji played a crucial role

Chris Woakes has been immensely grateful to the IPL for coming his way, as it helped him revive his career. The right-handed pacer has put in tremendous amount of work to take his game several notches higher over the past two years with handy performances lower down the order. His fast bowling capabilities too have come to the fore providing crucial breakthroughs at the start of the innings and at the death.

The Warwickshire player claims that the KKR bowling mentor Laksmipathy Balaji played a significant role in improving his game. Woakes revealed that it was Balaji, who taught him the art of concealing the ball.

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