All-rounder Chris Woakes is confident England will be receptive to playing cricket without spectators present, as the game continues to navigate the coronavirus pandemic.

Plenty of international cricket has been suspended as a preventative measure against the spread of the virus. England’s tour of Sri Lanka last month was postponed. The Indian Premier League has been deferred. The County Championship has not yet started and there are several other examples, too.

‘It’s not something we’ve talked about in depth about but I’m sure, as players, we would be able to get our heads around playing without any fans present, because it looks like there’s a high possibility of that happening,’ said Woakes.

‘I think we’d just be happy to get back to some form of normality, playing cricket, giving the public something to watch and hopefully entertaining some people who are missing cricket a lot.

‘Just coming out of lockdown is going to feel a bit strange, whenever that does happen. You almost can’t see the world being the same ever again. But you saw in Sri Lanka, we were trying our hardest not to make contact with each other, and not to shake hands and stick to fist bumps and things like, but it was quite easy to forget and accidentally do something that you’d told yourselves that you weren’t going to do.’

Woakes recently withdrew from playing for the Delhi Capitals in the IPL. This might extend his Test, ODI and T20I career with England.

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