The England cricketer who bowls at 95mph

“What a difference pace makes,” said Mike Atherton in The Times. It was what England’s bowlers so badly lacked in the first two Tests of their Caribbean tour, when they were drubbed by West Indies. But in their victorious third Test, in St Lucia this week, Mark Wood showed the team just what they had been missing. In the first innings, making his first appearance of the series, he took five wickets – four of them in “a single eight-over blast” – for only 41 runs. Even more impressive was the sheer speed of his bowling: he hit 94.6mph, the fastest ball by any bowler in this series. That took his average in Test cricket to 85.54mph, the highest by any England bowler since speeds were first recorded in 2005.

In the past, Wood’s performances “rarely matched” his pace, said Simon Wilde in the same paper. He has struggled with heel injuries, playing only 13 Tests in the four years since his debut. At 29, he seemed to be nearing the end of his days as a Test cricketer. Then Wood made a small but crucial tweak to his bowling, said Ali Martin in The Guardian. He ditched his “short, sprinter-style run-up” for a “smooth, extended gallop”. That has lessened the strain on his body without diminishing the “natural explosion” of his bowling action. Given the intensity of pace bowling, Wood has to be deployed selectively, on the kind of pitches that reward his talents. If England do that, they will have “a real asset on their hands”.