England all-rounder Chris Woakes revealed that he apologised to Rishabh Pant for the delivery that fractured the Indian wicketkeeper’s toe during the recent Test series — an incident after which he was moved by Pant’s generosity and graciousness.
Pant was unable to play in the fifth game of the series because Woakes had injured his foot during the fourth Test in Manchester. India overcame the defeat to square the series at 2-2 by winning the final at The Oval by six runs.
By continuing to bat in spite of serious injuries, Woakes and Pant both rose to prominence as heroes for their teams. Woakes came out in the fifth Test despite having a dislocated shoulder, while Pant padded up with a broken toe in Manchester.
“I saw Rishabh (Pant) had put an image of me on Instagram with a salute emoji, so I replied thanking him: ‘Appreciate the love and hope the foot is OK,’ etc,” Woakes recalled in an interview to ‘The Guardian’.
“He then sent me a voice note saying: ‘I hope all is OK, good luck with the recovery and I hope we meet again out there some day’. I obviously said sorry for the broken foot.”
Woakes also recalled how Shubman Gill, the captain of India, thanked him for taking the field during the fifth Test. Despite not being able to face a ball, Woakes claimed that it was difficult to run between the wickets.
“(India captain) Shubman (Gill) said something like: ‘That was incredibly brave’,” he said.
“I told him: ‘You’ve had an unbelievable series, well played, and credit to your team’. Both sets of players had been through the mill in the series and deserve credit for the show we put on. Both teams wanted the win, of course, but it does kind of feel fair that it was drawn.
