Wood is fit and ready to resume Archer ‘rivalry’
England pace duo have competition on speed gun Anderson injury opens door for another seamer
Mark Wood is close to full fitness and ready to resume his partnership with Jofra Archer, providing England with a big boost as they look to build on their Cape Town Test win.
Wood has not played since the World Cup final in July when he picked up a serious side injury straining every sinew to bowl at 95mph and win the trophy for England. He also underwent knee surgery, a cartilage clean out, during his time off and has spent his time in South Africa building up his fitness. Wood is unlikely to be risked in
Port Elizabeth this week with England ready to hold him back for the bouncier pitch and altitude of Johannesburg where pace at the Wanderers could be just what the team needs to edge a close series.
But Wood bowled 35 overs last week in the nets and believes he can offer Joe Root another pace-bowling option as England look to make changes this week due to James Anderson’s injury.
“I wouldn’t say that I’m 100 per cent, because I haven’t bowled the full amount of overs that I should have. I got through 35 overs last week, which is probably similar to a Test match week, but having not bowled competitively since the World Cup, it is about keeping building.
“I’ll be putting my name in the hat for this next game, but it will be up to the management as to whether I’ve bowled enough and am ready to go,” he said. “If the management were to look at my style of bowling and think it could be beneficial then my name is in the hat.”
Port Elizabeth is normally a slow pitch but reverse swing can play a part, which would make Wood a tempting replacement for Anderson, who is out for the rest of the series.
It was reverse swing from Simon Jones that led England to victory in their last Test in Port Elizabeth in 2004, but that was a team building towards their peak the following summer. This time around it is an England side bedevilled by inconsistency.
The pulsating win over Australia at Headingley last summer was followed by a poor performance at Old Trafford, so it is wise not to read too much into the result in Cape Town. At least England have options in the squad. There is depth to their bowling. Wood, Archer and Woakes are handy replacements for Anderson, with each offering something different.
Wood is skiddy and able to reverse the ball, Archer’s pace and accuracy have already bruised a couple of South Africans and he has recovered from the elbow injury that prevented him playing in Cape Town. Woakes might be able to extract movement with the new ball if the coastal climate offers swing, although concerns persist over his ability to use the Kookaburra for long.
“I have heard that Jo’burg might suit me better. It is at altitude and it is a bit of a bouncier pitch, so that might be the way to go, I don’t know,” admitted Wood, who enjoyed a pace bowling rivalry with Archer during the World Cup, comparing readings on the speed gun as they geed each other along. It is a bit of a false comparison, as Wood admits, because Archer makes it look so easy.
Wood puts his body on the line every time he bowls for England and has managed just one Test in 18 months and 13 in five years. But it was a jawdropping performance in his last match in St Lucia, where his five for 41 in the West Indies first innings was ranked as the quickest spell Scyld Berry, this newspaper’s cricket correspondent, had ever seen from an England bowler.
“I have felt that if I get fit then there’s no reason why I can’t do that again. Off the back of 2019, the West Indies trip and then the World Cup, I felt I was in great form and great rhythm and that intrinsic feeling of bowling well is what I want to get back to. It is a case of wait and see at the minute, but the St Lucia Test is lodged in my mind and is one of the best days I’ve had, so if I can replicate that I’ll be pretty happy.”
Archer bowled the super over in the final, holding his nerve at the end, but Wood bowled flat out in the New Zealand innings, eclipsing Archer, just, for pace before leaving the field close to tears because he knew he had sustained a bad injury trying to ratchet up the speed for his final few balls.
“I do like the idea of the two of us operating together in a Test match. We have a friendly rivalry over the speed gun. In the World Cup final I knew that I’d pipped him.
“I was clocked at 95.7mph and he was 95.6mph and as we came off the field and into the dressing room I was dying to tell him.
“I said to him as he walked in ‘Jofra! I’ve got you! I’ve done you on the speed gun’ and he strolled past fresh as a daisy and looked me up and down with an ice pack on my side, an ice pack on my knee and an ice pack on my ankle and just said ‘yeah but I think I’d rather be me’ and I was like ‘yeah, fair enough mate’.”
‘I’ll be putting my name in the hat for the next game’