Mark Wood bouncing again as England quick fires off early wickets in unfamiliar role

England benefit from fierce new-ball spell in Third Test vs India
Malik Ouzia @MalikOuzia_15 February 2024

On the opening morning of last summer’s must-win Third Ashes Test at Headingley, Mark Wood could be found roaming the England dressing room on all fours, barking like a dog.

Having missed the first two Tests of the series, the insinuation was clear: with the urn on the line, England were about to let their hunter off the leash.

Two Tests into the ongoing series against India, Wood had delivered only a fractionally greater impact than at the same stage of the Ashes: a wicketless outing in spin-friendly Hyderabad, followed by a watching brief at Vizag.

But on day one of the third instalment in Rajkot, the quick bowler announced his return with a spell reminiscent — if not quite as brisk — as that which had put the frighteners up Australia to blow India’s top order apart.

Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill had both made hundreds to inspire the home team’s series-levelling victory in Vizag, a double in the former’s case, but neither had an answer to Wood’s pace, as England’s decision to recall a second seamer reaped instant rewards.

In Hyderabad, Wood had been ill-suited by the novelty of a lone fast bowler’s role, his only company a four-strong novice spin attack.

With the emphasis on control, he bowled economically in India’s first innings but without his usual threat, before being trusted with only eight overs in the second dig, as Tom Hartley ran riot on a turning track.

Taking the new ball does not exactly come naturally to the 34-year-old, either: this was just the sixth time he had opened the bowling in a Test innings, half of those since the start of this tour. But back in tandem today with James Anderson, Wood was set free; more evidence — to go with Jasprit Bumrah’s success across the opening fortnight — that a two-seam ploy might have been the way to go before now, for all England’s reliance on spin has hardly led them too far astray.

It has not always done his body a world of good, but one of the joys in watching Wood bowl fast has always been that, unlike the Bumrahs and Jofra Archers of this world, every strain for that extra yard is writ clear.

This was Wood revved to the nines, as he had been in Leeds last summer; the full routine on show, from the top of that charging run to the familiar figure flat out on the deck at its end.

At Headingley, his first success was in ousting Usman Khawaja, who had most frustrated England, and while Jaiswal has done so in more thrilling fashion, the celebration when the young buck edged to slip on 10 was of similar ilk.

Gill played Marnus Labuschagne’s summer-long role: all dressed up but going nowhere, as he eventually succumbed to a grim nine-ball duck.

Wood later took the vital wicket of century-maker Rohit Sharma, the opener mistiming a pull to Ben Stokes at mid-wicket after a barrage of bouncers to fall for 131.

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