Bad light means Chris Woakes is bowling spin

On the second day of the Test against Sri Lanka at The Oval, pacer Chris Woakes was compelled to bowl spin due to poor light conditions. The bad light and the on-field umpires forced Woakes to switch from pace to spin bowling. Consequently, Woakes bowled the last four deliveries of his fourth over as a spinner, leading to a highly amusing situation in the match.

During an over, the umpires instructed Woakes to bowl off-spin because the lighting was too poor for pace bowling. Commentator Michael Atherton was heard on Sky Sports saying, "The game has gone mad." Joe Root raised his eyebrows in amused reaction, while Ben Stokes watched in disbelief from England’s balcony.

The incident occurred in the seventh over of Sri Lanka's batting innings. On Woakes’ second delivery of the over, opener Dimuth Karunaratne was run out while attempting a single. Kushal Mendis was about to come in at number 3, but on-field umpires Joel Wilson and Chris Gaffaney were not satisfied with the light conditions. They called over England captain Ollie Pope and informed him that pace bowling could not continue under the current lighting, and the rest of the over would have to be bowled as spin.

With four deliveries remaining in Woakes' over, the only option was to either leave the field or temporarily bowl spin. Woakes switched from his pace run-up to bowl off-break deliveries for the remaining four balls of the over. When the cloud cover cleared and Gus Atkinson came on, pace bowling resumed. This led to a highly entertaining moment in the match.