"Drive Your Car, Carry Balls Home": Chris Woakes Shares Detail Of Individual Training In England

England cricketers resumed training amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, en route to the resumption of the sport in the country. The English board has taken primitive measures for the safety of the players resuming training and all-rounder Chris Woakes was mighty impressed with how things unfolded as he returned amid “very strict” rules.

Chris Woakes trained at his home ground at Edgbaston. He was one of the very first players after England fast bowler Stuart Broad to start with the individual sessions. The Edgbaston stadium is also being used as a facility for testing the novel coronavirus pandemic. Woakes amid all this, made his way, to the ground in his own car.

Chris Woakes: The venues and counties have tried to make this as safe as possible

Chris Woakes said the board has done a great job in ensuring the safety of the players. His first training consisted mostly of training and exercise as a warm-up. He also bowled five overs in the nets with low intensity after he was given a box of six balls which could be carried home and no one would touch it under ‘one skin one ball’ policy enforced by the board.

Interestingly, as Woakes entered the ground after parking his own car, a box of balls was kept ready for his practice. He also said that the rules are very strict but for the safety of the players. “The venues and counties have tried to make this as safe as possible,” Woakes was quoted as saying by espncricinfo.

“In my eyes, they’ve done a really good job. I knew exactly how I was going to go into the ground. You have to drive your own car – at the minute there’s a lot of testing going on at Edgbaston, with the testing facility – [so I] parked in a safe area at the back, and walked onto the pitch through the Hollies Stand. This has all been planned in the last few weeks, so it’s as safe as possible, we don’t come into contact with anyone.

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What do we make of @chriswoakes' alice band? pic.twitter.com/zSAVev4fSh

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“I took everything I needed for training with me: bottles, towels, medicine balls, bands that I use for warming up. I was given a box of balls, ready there for me to use once I got into the ground. And then those balls are now mine. No one else will touch them – the whole thing of having one skin on each ball.

“It was all very strict. On arrival there’s a station where you can wash your hands and put anti-bac on before you start. There was a physio from Warwickshire there with me but, again, we don’t come into contact. We stayed more than two metres apart and I did my training. It took about an hour, and then I walked back through the Hollies to my car and left,” he added.

A few days back Broad trained at the Trent Bridge.