In some rare scenes in the England vs Sri Lanka 3rd Test at Kia Oval, right-arm fast bowler Chris Woakes turned into an off-spinner for a short duration. Woakes is the major lynchpin in the England bowling line-up after the retirement of James Anderson and Stuart Broad.
Due to the light issues at Kia Oval in the ongoing Test, Woakes was forced to bowl spin despite of his usual pace on the second day. The incident took place in the 7th over of Sri Lanka's innings right after he took the wicket of Dimuth Karunaratne.
The umpires informed England captain Ollie Pope about the deteriorating light condition at the Oval after Woakes was two balls into his fourth over. Woakes had to turn into an off-spinner for the remainder of the four balls of his over and got hit for a four on a shorter-length delivery.
Watch the video of Woakes spin-bowling here:
However, in the next over of Gus Atkinson, the light conditions improved, allowing the bowler to bowl pace. When Woakes returned for his over after Atkinson's, the all-rounder was also given the green signal to continue bowling pace.
Notably, the bad light has continuously affected the game. The opening day of the contest was affected due to the light conditions. As the conditions went down, the play was stopped multiple times, disallowing the players to keep playing. The first day saw only 44.1 overs being bowled with England making 221/3. On day 2, England managed to add 104 more to their score before getting bowled out.
England's Playing XI:
Daniel Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Olly Stone, Josh Hull, Shoaib Bashir
Sri Lanka's Playing XI:
Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal (wk), Dhananjaya de Silva (c), Kamindu Mendis, Milan Priyanath Rathnayake, Lahiru Kumara, Vishwa Fernando, Asitha Fernando
