Mark Wood feels he has 'stood up well physically' after seizing chance with England again
Mark Wood has endured a career truncated by injury like no other England bowler so it is no surprise he seizes every opportunity that comes his way.
He has done so in this match by bowling at a consistently quicker pace than any at any other time in his Test career. His average speed in his first game of cricket since the World Cup final has been 88.38mph, quicker than even Jofra Archer managed over the course of the Lord’s Ashes Test last summer when he poleaxed Steve Smith. It is even faster than when Wood whipped up a storm in St Lucia last year, mainly because he flagged in the second innings.
It is a slightly skewed statistic in that Wood has only bowled 22 overs in this game and Archer’s pace of 87.55 at Lord’s was stretched over double that number.
But what matters to Wood is that he has bowled quickly and consistently to provide Joe Root with a lethal weapon to unleash when he needed a breakthrough.
“I've missed it for a long time, that feeling I had before the game. Hadn’t played any practice matches, hadn’t done anything and didn’t have that fitness but I knew things felt good in the nets,” he said. “I’m a little bit tired at the end of today, bowling a lot of bouncers but all in all I think I've stood up well physically.
“Something is going to hurt eventually and I'm wrapped up like a mummy on my left leg but it's part and parcel of being a fast bowler. I'm not a natural 6ft 5in, built like a tank so I have to give everything I've got to try and rev it up.”
Most sportsman trot out the cliche of taking it “one game at a time” but Wood is an articulate cricketer and when he says he is not looking beyond the current match it is because he means it.
“I’m not saying that because I’m hoying up cliches, that’s generally how it is,” he said. “I have to take it as it comes because that’s the nature of how I bowl. Tomorrow I could fall over for the 54th time in the game and strain my ankle or something like that. I’ll wait and see.”
He even refused to say if he will be fit for the fourth Test on Friday. That is how wary he is of making predictions. “I don’t like to say “my body feels good” every time and feed you false information. I just got to see how it goes. I’m in a good place at the minute, I’ve been bowling well in the nets, getting through this game well. We’ll just wait and see.”
Archer bowled on the outfield during the tea break, sending down a few gentle deliveries to assistant coach Paul Collingwood wearing a baseball mitt. He was wearing a bandage on his right elbow and is still unclear if he will be fit for the Wanderers Test but if Wood can survive today unscathed, and that is the biggest ‘if’ in cricket, then England have an alternative.
Wood has revelled in playing for England again. He smashed sixes for fun with the bat as England piled into demoralised South Africa in the first innings with Wood briefly threatening Sir Ian Botham’s England record for the fastest Test 50 before holing out. He claimed a brilliant tumbling catch off Joe Root at point, taking it high above his head, and sent Dean Elgar’s off stump careering out of the ground to open up South Africa’s second innings.
He roughed up South Africa’s No 3 Zubayr Hamza with short balls from the wicket and has almost certainly bombed him out of the side for the next Test.
How Root would have loved to have Wood’s pace during the Ashes but he bowled himself out of the series by putting his body on the line in the World Cup final. Wood knew he had badly damaged his side in his final over against New Zealand but did not want to let the team down so gritted his teeth and bowled his final three balls knowing the eventual price he would pay.
“Every ball I bowled it got worse so I knew it was pretty bad then. I spoke to Morgs (Eoin Morgan) about just getting through the three balls. It's World Cup final so I didn't want to limp off after 9.3 overs. I got through those three balls and knew I was out the Ashes. I would not swap that for the world. To be a World Cup winner, I'd take that any day of the week even if I didn’t play another game of Test cricket I’ve always got that to look back on and fond memories. That was the pinnacle of my career.”
Only the weather stands between Wood toasting his return with victory. “I’m concerned. I thought Africa was the sunniest place in the world and then I come back and it’s like Durham. I think I’d be lying if I wasn’t a little bit worried. But because we’re in a hot country and the wind’s blowing, you hope that it’s going to dry quickly if the wind stops.”
