South Africa vs England: Boxing Day call-up tops Chris Woakes’ Christmas list

Being away for Christmas does have its advantages, especially if you’re Chris Woakes.

“I’m a Villa fan, unfortunately, so it will be good to get away from the area because I’m copping it at the minute,” he says. “I went to a few home games before I flew off to Dubai and things hadn’t gone to plan, let’s put it that way. As you can imagine, whenever me and Belly [Ian Bell] are at Edgbaston we’re getting stick from everyone.”

Villa, of course, are experiencing a season to forget. Woakes, in contrast, has the opportunity to finish 2015 with an occasion to remember as England prepare for their final Test of an exhausting year against South Africa in Durban on Boxing Day.

The Warwickshire all-rounder missed the majority of the English summer, first with a stress injury of the foot and then with a knee problem, and played just three one-day internationals against Australia at the tail end of the season.

He returned to full fitness only on the one-day leg of England’s tour to the United Arab Emirates, playing a full role – he took eight wickets at a cost of under 20 – as the tourists beat Pakistan 3-1.

With his Christmas shopping list successfully ticked off the day before he boarded the plane from Heathrow, the greatest gift that the 26-year-old can hope for in an indifferent year is the chance to add to his Test cap haul at Kingsmead.

England will, of course, be training while the rest of the nation tucks into their festive turkey the day before the Test and although some allowances will be made, the days when the players ate, drank and dressed up in SS uniforms and Diana Ross wigs – see the Ashes tour of 1986/87 – are long gone.

Woakes insists that his pre-flight shopping trip hadn’t involved a visit to one of Birmingham’s many fancy dress shops, so the chances of seeing Christmas Day birthday boy Alastair Cook dressed as a pirate while supping a Castle lager on Friday look remote.

It’s probably for the best. It would take a brave cricketer to get on the sauce before waking up to face Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel in front of a South African crowd baying for blood the following morning.

Woakes is one of a number of players in this side hoping to use the South Africa tour as a platform for establishing himself in this England Test side, so it’s little wonder that he doesn’t see a low-key Christmas day as too much of a sacrifice. “You’re not going to be touring for the whole of your life so you have to make the most of it while you can,” he says.

“Everyone thinks the life of a professional cricketer is glamorous and, yes, there are some sides to it that are, but we’re lucky to do something we love and enjoy doing so we can’t complain, even though we spend so much time away.”

It is put to Woakes that maybe he’s playing in the wrong era, given the Christmas Day antics of the likes of Mike Gatting, David Gower and Ian Botham in the past. But it’s a suggestion that elicits a laugh from a cricketer brought up in an era when diets are strictly monitored and alcohol is viewed with a suspicion reserved traditionally for a Shane Warne flipper.

“The festive period is a great time to be around friends and family but it’s part and parcel of what we do,” says Woakes. “We have to go away for long periods of time but we’re lucky enough to have our family, wives or girlfriends on tour with us over Christmas and New Year, which is great.

“I’m not sure exactly what we’ll be doing on Christmas Day. I would imagine there will be a short practice as there always is the day before a Test and then I know in previous years there has been a team dinner with the wives and the girlfriends after.

“I guess there might be a secret Santa as well – I should think there will be some amusing presents exchanging hands if there is.”

For Woakes, this is just his second tour and his first Christmas away with the national side. His first overseas trip was to New Zealand in 2013/14, shortly after the summer in which he made his Test debut in the final match of the Ashes at the Oval.

Although it was hardly a show-stopping entrance from the Warwickshire all-rounder, he did find himself not out alongside Matt Prior when bad light intervened with England just 21 short of victory and an historic 4-0 series win.

“It seems like quite a while ago,” he says. “It was great to make my debut in an Ashes Test. It didn’t go brilliantly but it also wasn’t a train smash by any means. The wicket wasn’t the best to bowl on, it was a real featherbed, but I held my own.

“We were very close to getting over the line in that game, it was a generous declaration from the Aussies but to be fair it was pretty dark at the end. We were close to making it 4-0, which would have been lovely on debut to have been there and not out at the end. I suppose I’m an Ashes winner, which is nice.”

That could have been the springboard for an all-rounder who boasts a formidable record in county cricket with Warwickshire. In recent seasons he has upped the revs with the ball and continued to look as accomplished as any all-rounder in the county game with the bat.

Frustrating then, that he still has only four Test caps to his name.

“I obviously played three more games in the summer last year against India and probably didn’t get the rewards I deserved in that series,” he says.

“I bowled well and did all right with the bat when I got the opportunity as well. It has been stop-start, I guess, but I haven’t had a huge amount of opportunity.”

With England likely to be put under intense pressure by Hashim Amla’s side from the off, Woakes could well represent a safe pair of hands as a third seamer in conditions that should be to his liking.

“The Boxing Day Test is a huge event, I’m sure there’ll be lots of English supporters following the cricket out there,” he says. “It’s an iconic Test match – I’ll be trying my best to squeeze myself into that 11 because it will be an amazing week to be a part of.”

This England side will happily leave the festive fancy dress and beer to the Barmy Army. All they need from Cook’s side is a reason to continue the Christmas party.