Woakes: ‘Death over bowling is something RCB needs to work on’

In RCB’s previous match, against Mumbai Indians (MI), it was Corey Anderson who bowled the final over, despite Woakes having one over left, in his quota of four.

Chris Woakes (above) looks at the proposed move by Virat Kohli, to play county cricket, in a positive light.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) fast bowler Chris Woakes believes that the team has to improve across departments, in order to arrest a poor start to its IPL campaign.

Asked about the concerns surrounding RCB’s death over bowling, Woakes replied, “We’ve got all sorts of areas that need improvement. We’ve not put in our full performance, with bat and bowl. Losing wickets in clusters is something we need to look at. It is not ideal to lose two wickets in an over, or three wickets in the space of two overs. Death over bowling is also something we need to work on. We have the death over bowling plan, but we need to execute.”

In RCB’s previous match, against Mumbai Indians (MI), it was Corey Anderson who bowled the final over, despite Woakes having one over left, in his quota of four. The move did not go to plan, as Anderson conceded 21 runs. MI's inflated first-innings total of 213 for six led to RCB's third defeat, in four matches.

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“The decision (to give Anderson the final over) was made by the captain and the coach. Corey bowled three good overs before that. Maybe, they thought that Corey was a good option, with him being a left-armer, who takes the ball across the right-handed batsmen," Woakes said.

RCB captain Virat Kohli recently stated that he is eager to compete in county cricket, ahead of India's tour to England, later, in 2018. The idea has not gone down well with former England fast bowler Bob Willis, who said that giving Kohli the chance to acclimatise to local conditions will harm England's chances of recording a series victory.

Woakes, who could well be part of the England team's bowling line-up, which takes on Kohli and his men, looks at the proposed move in a positive light. “If counties are willing to sign Indian players, then so be it. Having really good overseas players makes county cricket stronger. It will be a great experience for our young guys to bowl to Kohli. However, hopefully, Kohli won’t score too many runs and come into the international series in good form (laughs),” Woakes said.