England vs Pakistan: All-rounder Chris Woakes shines with both bat and ball

Warwickshire man registered half-century with bat before returning to take three Pakistan wickets

Chris Woakes celebrates taking a catch off his own bowling to remove Azhar Ali late on day two (Getty)

Such has been the rise of Chris Woakes that his 58 with the bat on day two at Old Trafford can be seen as a missed opportunity for something bigger and better.

This is the 2,208th Test to be played and only six men have made a hundred as nightwatchman, none of them from England. Woakes, who was sent in as nightwatchman on the first evening could - and probably should, given the benign nature of the pitch - have been his country’s first.

It is a record worth having as Alex Tudor probably now regrets. Tudor performed the duty for England against New Zealand at Edgbaston in 1999, took them to the cusp of victory, and then got all team-minded when Graham Thorpe, his batting partner, offered him the chance to reach his hundred. “Nah, just win the game,” said Tudor, who will forever be stranded on 99 not out.

The concept of the nightwatchman is a curious one. Nobody is quite sure when it first made an appearance but it probably evolved from the practice of sending in “dispensable” bowlers to bat, in the days of uncovered pitches, when those surfaces were at their trickiest, say after rain. The hope being they would take up enough time for the conditions to ease, at which point the recognised batsmen would still be around to make capital.

It then transferred to the “tricky” period just before the close of play, when fading light and a late wicket would imperil a new batsman, and indeed the one already at the crease, to the point where a nightwatchman would be summoned. Quite why a bowler with limited batting prowess was more likely to survive than a batsman proper is one of those bits of logic that will never add up, but it has been a quirk of cricket since

The nightwatchman used to be invoked when they were 20 or fewer minutes of play remaining but every team has its rules about playing the joker. For instance Sussex once sent in Robin Marlar during a county match with two balls remaining and he was out, stumped, for six, his mission accomplished.

Marlar took the old-fashioned view that the public had come to watch batsmen bat and bowlers bowl (he was a wrist-spinner) and didn’t want to clutter the view the following morning. These days, the mindset is to see it as an opportunity to make a career best and nightwatchmen try to bat as long as they can.

Forty years ago the breed had few pretensions about making a big score. That helped them to rationalise the role in their own minds. Mind you, there have been times when confusion has reigned and the recognised batsman at the crease has taken the strike when that is what the nightwatchman should have been doing.

Woakes' problem on Saturday was that he seemed to flit between being a batsman, an all-rounder, a nightwatchman and a tailender, designations that could all have been applied to him over his hiccuping England career.

Chris Woakes also played his part with the bat - adding a half-century as England piled on the runs (Getty)

Having reached 58, largely in the manner expected of an batsman or all-rounder, with some lordly strokes, he then played a tail-ender’s shot to get out, caught and bowled by Yasir Shah. It proved to be the wrist-spinner’s only wicket of the innings.

England have always deployed a nightwatchman though Australia, at least under Steve Waugh, refused to countenance them, saying that batsmen were there to bat and not be molly-coddled. There is a certain irony, then, that an Australian, Jason Gillespie, in the immediate aftermath of the Waugh era, is the world record holder for the highest Test score made by a nightwatchman.

Gillespie was a fine Test bowler and will remembered as such. But the unbeaten 201 he made against Bangladesh in 2005/06 is a record he will hold for the remainder of his life as well as that of the next few generations of Gillespies to come.

Despite occasional kudos like that it remains a strange role, part sacrificial lamb, part medieval vassal, though one only deemed successful if you do not end up a victim before the day’s end.

As the brilliant Neil Hannon had it in the Nightwatchman song by the Duckworth Lewis Method: “I'd give it all and more. To be by your side... in the morning light.”

Woakes was there by Joe Root’s side but did not join the three-figure club. Later, in the role England have really picked him for, Woakes made the early inroads into Pakistan’s batting with the wickets of Mohammad Hafeez and Azhar Ali in the space of 19 balls.

The second of those wickets fell with 25 minutes of the day’s play remaining. But instead of opting for a nightwatchman, Younus Khan, the veteran batsman, marched to the crease. A few overs later, he was strangled down the leg-side by Ben Stokes for one - fortune not always favouring the bold.

A nightwatchman, Rahat Ali, was then utilised but did not last long, despatched by that man Woakes, who having performed the role earlier, obviously knew the weaknesses to exploit. On this occasion, a bouncer straight at the throat.