Wood is gold dust in an attack with real menace

SIX months ago England’s only batting concerns centred on how to get good players such as Jonny Bairstow and Sam Billings into the side because they had moved on so successfully since the World Cup. The bowling was different. Go back to the India tour in January and England’s bowling looked a little one-dimensional and one-paced. While they led the way in runs scored per over they were at the bottom of the table in runs conceded. Since then they have turned that around with three bowlers, in the absence of the injured Chris Woakes, central to their 50-over improvement. Mark Wood (above) is the main man at the start of the innings with his extra pace but he has more to his armoury than just speed. He is developing a useful habit of getting top players out with beauties, as he did with David Warner on Saturday. While Wood is gold dust at the start of an innings, Liam Plunkett then hits you in the middle with his cross-seamers and all the variations he has added to his game to become one of the leading wicket-takers in the competition. Then a much improved Adil Rashid comes more into the equation as you get into the lower order with players who are just not picking him up at all. He provides that mystery towards the end of an innings. Rashid has always had potential to take wickets but, let’s be honest, there has always been dross too with full tosses and long hops. Not this summer. He did not go for a single boundary in his 10 overs against Australia and it is baffling why he did not play in the first match against Bangladesh. All credit to Eoin Morgan for the way he uses his bowlers, manoeuvres them and keeps some overs from Rashid up his sleeve for the last power-play when he can have an extra fielder in the deep. The captain has so many options now. There is still a little concern at the death with Woakes not there. Ben Stokes still has a tendency to bowl it on the arc of the bat, as he did to Travis Head at Edgbaston, when he should be going a bit wider with yorkers. England like Jake Ball, while Wood can do the job, as he showed at the Ageas Bowl against South Africa, but if it comes down to India needing 80 off the last 10 in the final with Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni at the crease there might be problems. I have backed Jason Roy all through this tournament but I have also said that the time to change would be when England think he has gone mentally — and at Edgbaston he looked all at sea, both technically and mentally. He strikes me as a bloke with a scrambled brain at the moment and England must consider who is more likely to come good in a semi-final now. It looks like time to bring in Bairstow to open at Cardiff on Wednesday.