But Woakes is used to starting slowly. In 2019, he took four wickets at 54.75 in England's first five World Cup games, while conceding 6.25 runs per over; in their final six matches, he took 12 wickets at 18.91, with his economy rate falling to 4.54 runs per over. Across the semi-final and the final, he returned combined figures of 6 for 57.

It is not a conscious strategy. "You want to hit the ground running," he said on Thursday, a rest day for England after they flew to Delhi ahead of Sunday's fixture against Afghanistan. "But they are long competitions, and you don't want to peak too soon I have built into tournaments in the past and into series, which I suppose holds me in good stead."

Woakes assessed his own form as follows: "Ideally, I'd like to have gone a bit better I wouldn't have said that I've probably bowled as well as I know I can." By his own admission, he got things wrong against New Zealand, when he erred too full and was picked off by Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra, particularly in the initial powerplay.

"The conditions did change, and we probably didn't quite adapt as well as we'd have liked," he said. "I probably haven't executed as well as I can, but I picked up two really important wickets in the last game. In a game like that, wickets are really important, so I was pleased to have picked up those two and it gives me confidence moving forwards."

His second spell on Tuesday was particularly encouraging - and, specifically, the wicket of Das, whose 76 off 66 was the outstanding innings of Bangladesh's attempt to chase 365. Woakes is known as "The Wizard" by his England team-mates, and the ball that accounted for Das was the culmination of several months' work on a new trick.

Since turning his attention to white-ball cricket after the Ashes, Woakes has been working on his cutters - in particular, an offcutter which he is trying to bowl with the seam upright. "In these conditions, if I can bowl it with the seam up and it grabs the seam, it either holds or skids a little bit better," he explained. "The delivery itself is the same, it's just the way it comes out from a seam point of view."

Working with Warwickshire's bowling coach, Stuart Barnes, Woakes has also been perfecting a legcutter, which he bowled extensively through his second spell against Bangladesh. "I obviously had this [the World Cup] in mind. Coming here to Asia, I think it could be a wicket-taking delivery, taking the ball away from a right-hander you're always trying to adapt your game and trying to develop it, regardless of your age."

England's next assignment is Sunday's day-night match against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, a venue which has hosted two uncharacteristically fast-scoring games so far. Despite spending an IPL season with Delhi Capitals, Woakes never played for them at the venue - though did play there once in 2017 for Kolkata Knight Riders, and in a tour match for England a decade ago.

"It's quite an iconic Indian cricket ground, isn't it?" Woakes said. "It's always exciting to play at these sorts of venues. It looks like it's been relatively high-scoring... we'll expect that, but we'll have to adapt to conditions on the day and we're coming up against an Afghanistan team who are dangerous and can really compete on their day. We won't be taking them lightly either."

And despite a gruelling travel schedule - England's fixture list is the second-most taxing of any team, behind the hosts India - Woakes is optimistic that he could feature in all nine of their group games, as he did in 2019. "I obviously would like to," he said. "I certainly hope so from a physical point of view, I think it's possible."