Chris Woakes has said that England are not alarmed by the way their batsmen misfired in the first practice match against Hyderabad Cricket Association XI. England lost their top four batsmen within 50 runs and it was left to Ravi Bopara and Woakes to take the visitors past 200, which ultimately proved beyond the home side.
"We would obviously have loved to put up a bigger score," Woakes said. "They fielded very well and pulled off some brilliant catches. There was some poor shot selection. We are not worried. It was a decent win in the end."
Woakes took the new ball along with Steven Finn and followed up his 46 with two middle-order wickets in the 56-run victory. Woakes felt that he could improve with the bat despite playing a major role in England's recovery after their specialist batsmen, apart from Bopara, had failed. "We [Bopara and I] had a good partnership going and we adjusted well to the conditions. Obviously it would be nice to bat higher up the order. But whatever the slot, it doesn't matter much."
Having batted for more than an hour and bowled seven overs in the game, Woakes felt that it was difficult to get used to the conditions early on. "It is an honour to take the new ball for England. It was good. The wicket was a bit two-paced and the length was very important.
"The new rule of taking two balls looks good. The ball keeps shape a lot longer and with the ball not changed towards the end you have a good feel of it through the innings. The ball did start to reverse towards the end and that I think would happen here because of the outfield."
England will play another practice game against Hyderabad on October 11 before taking on India at the same ground in the first match of the ODI series on October 14.