He’s the uncapped seamer selected in England’s Test squad for the upcoming three-match tour of the West Indies.
Former England and Durham stalwarts Steve Harmison and Paul Collingwood have long been of the opinion that he’s an international star in the making. So who is Mark Wood? We take a closer look…
Name: Mark Wood
Age: 25
Nickname: Woody
County: Durham
Action: Right-arm fast-medium
First-class record: 74 wickets at 26.16 apiece
Twitter: @MAWood33
Emergence
Ashington has already given birth to one English pace menace – Steve Harmison – and now the Northumberland town has another seamer to shout about. After joining the Durham Academy in 2007, he made his Championship debut in 2011 against Nottinghamshire and was subsequently awarded his first professional contract in the same year by then Head Coach Geoff Cook, who was impressed by his ability to deliver “good performances in high-pressure situations”.
Title winner
Fit and firing after an injury-troubled 2012, Wood was a key member of Durham’s 2013 Championship-winning team – although his first meaningful contribution came with the bat as he struck an unbeaten 58 against Nottinghamshire. He followed up with a spell of 3-11, the first wickets in a season that produced 27 scalps at 24.07 apiece, his best figures of 5-44 coming in an emphatic victory over Surrey.
Lions honours
His domestic displays earned him selection for England Lions’ tour of Sri Lanka and he quickly made an impact, taking a five-wicket haul against an Emerging Players side before a side injury forced him to fly home early. Off the back of an injury-hit 2014 Championship season in which he took 18 wickets at 34.17, Wood returned to Lions action on the tour to South Africa. Under Jonathan Trott’s leadership, he returned 4-29 against a Gauteng Invitation XI before playing in four of the five unofficial ODIs against South Africa A, taking four wickets at 30.75 – the Lions taking the series 3-1.
Style
A skiddy bowler who can swing the ball at pace – at six foot tall he may lack towering height but he still has the ability to rush batsmen. He also can reverse swing the ball, which will be key in te West Indies, and around the world as we found in the last Ashes series. Wood has a quirky start to his run up, reminiscent of a relay runner about to receive the baton ready to spring into action. His is not a long run but it’s explosive.
Mike Atherton’s view
Wood really impressed England’s ‘out-going' bowling coach David Saker; he thinks very highly of him, which is a good thing given that England’s bowling reserves are a bit thin. Five or six years ago we had a strong crop of seamers, but that’s not so much the case now. This is a great opportunity for him; he’s impressed consistently over the last couple of years and he gets his chance at what is a good time. If you compare that to the lot of his county team-mate Graham Onions when he got his chance in 2009, the reserves were strong and it was hard to get in. As a result, he’s only played nine Tests. So I’d say this is a good time for Wood to seize his opportunity.
Watch England’s three Test tour against West Indies live on Sky Sports 2, starting with the first Test on Monday 13th April.