Michael Vaughan On How England Will Miss Mark Wood: Former England Cricket Team captain Michael Vaughan believes that the Three Lions will miss the services of fast bowler Mark Wood in the remaining two Test matches against Sri Lanka even more than regular captain Ben Stokes.
The ongoing three-match England vs Sri Lanka Test series saw the first contest recently conclude with the English picking up the win. The Lankans won the toss and decided to bat first in Manchester’s Old Trafford Cricket Ground, scoring 236 runs in the first inning with the help of a valiant 72 by the No. 9 batter Milan Rathnayake and a 74 by captain Dhananjaya de Silva.
In response, England scored 358, with wicketkeeper Jamie Smith scoring his first Test 100. In the third inning, Sri Lanka did better and scored 326 runs, as Kamindu Mendis scored a century. Needing 205 runs to win in the final inning, England did so, with Joe Root being the highest run scorer at 62.
Mark Wood was part of the England team for the three Tests. In the first inning, as Sri Lanka only batted for 74 overs, Wood bowled only eight, with Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson picking the load for pace bowling. Coming in to bowl in the third inning, the 34-year-old bowled a lot more at the start, even dismissing Dimuth Karenaratne.
When bowling his 11th over, he grabbed his thigh after the second delivery and left the field soon after during what was the 56th over of the inning. Joe Root came in to bowl the four remaining balls, taking a wicket of Rathnayake on his second (fourth of the over).
Wood missed the remaining day four of bowling, which saw England bowl out Sri Lanka, coming into bat and winning the game. The pacer was taken to the hospital for scans, with the team wishing it would rather be a strain than a pull.
Mark Wood has struggled with injuries throughout his career, which is nothing new for a fast bowler. Now in his 30s and still one of the quickest bowlers in the world, he is even more injury-prone.
Michael Vaughan On How England Will Miss Mark Wood
While his status for the remainder of the series is unknown, former captain Vaughan reckons that if the pacer is to miss the two remaining Tests, England will miss him more than they are missing Ben Stokes in this series.
“Mark Wood is the key; look at all the England side, even Ben Stokes now. Ben Stokes is a talisman, an incredible cricketer, England miss but they will miss Wood even more because there is no one who can bowl 95 miles an hour,” he said.
Ben Stokes, who is England’s red ball captain, injured his hamstring while playing for the Northern Superchargers in the Hundred 2024. Ollie Pope has taken the national team’s captaincy in his absence.
Vaughan then went on to say that Wood can bowl even quicker than Jofra Archer, who is yet another injury-prone English pacer who is left out of the squad for the ongoing series. The former captain said,
“Mark Wood is becoming quite quickly the most important member of this team because he brings something that they haven’t got anyone that can bring. Even Jofra Archer can’t bowl this pace. He (Wood) is bowling 95 to 97 miles an hour.”
England will take on the Sri Lanka Cricket Team in the second Test out of three in their series from August 29 to September 2 at ‘the Mecca of Cricket’, Lord’s Cricket Stadium in London.
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