What is it like to bowl at 95mph? For Mark Wood, whose scorching return to England’s Test team sent everyone a bit gaga in St Lucia, the answer is wonderfully simple: “You almost feel like a superhero. I’ve been playing Mario Kart recently and yeah, it’s like when you get a magic mushroom and you’re just absolutely flying.”
It will come as little surprise to learn Wood is still glowing from victory in the third Test against West Indies and his maiden five-wicket haul. The 29-year-old sat down for a chat this week and, in that inimitable Ashington twang, his delight at finally becoming a match-winner shone through.
“I’ll never forget the feeling of that spell,” he said. “If I’m ever down about my bowling I’ll rewatch the highlights. I’ve watched them about 20 times already – probably more. This will sound bad but seeing it back I just thought: ‘Wow, that’s me.’ I couldn’t believe how well I bowled and how fast it looked on TV. I was so happy.”
Wood’s recall in St Lucia may have come too late for the series, with a resurgent West Indies side having already taken a 2-0 lead. But first-innings figures of five for 41 that propelled Joe Root’s side to a 232-run consolation win were more than just the numbers in the scorebook.
In his initial 19-ball burst before tea on the second day, one that dispatched Shai Hope, Roston Chase and Shimron Hetmyer, Wood ensured the clouded Test leg of this tour would end with a significant silver lining; his slippery pace, something many feared had been sliced away by three bouts of ankle surgery, was back.
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His first delivery was clocked at 88mph and the follow-up at 90. When Hetmyer survived his hat-trick ball, the speedgun hit 94.6mph. The crowd was transfixed, a usually busy England dressing room stopped in its tracks and the slips appeared closer to the sightscreen than the stumps. The sense from Wood was that the batsmen wished they were too.
“You could see their batsmen coming in and looking more nervous,” he said. “Hetmyer had attacked our bowlers from the outset in the first two Tests. I expected more of the same and when he didn’t I thought: ‘I’ve got him here. I’m on top of him.’ As soon as you feel like that it’s like: ‘Right, any ball I can get a wicket.’ I was so in the zone too, I didn’t know my field. I was just so focused on the batsman.”
Wood winces when reminded about his cheeky comment to TalkSport that Hetmyer had “two feet in the toilet” before edging a 91mph lifter through to first slip (a catch that left Root’s hands burning) as he admires the Guyanese left-hander. Nevertheless, after two tough Tests for England’s batsmen, he loved switching the panic over to the opposition, as he had done in Australia last winter.
“I’d been with the Test squad towards the end of the Ashes and the lads had got peppered. So when the ODIs came, I told them: ‘Right, I’m going to hit David Warner in the head first ball’ and I was pretty much on the money. A few came over after I got him out a couple of balls later and said the mood had changed. I wanted to have that same impact here.
“West Indies had put our batters under the pump. But I always watch the home team’s bowlers – after all, they know the conditions – and with Kemar Roach closer to my height [6ft] and Shannon Gabriel the pace I aim for, I took bits from both. Starting well was important. They suddenly thought ‘he’s on it here’ and it changed the mood again.”
After completing his five-wicket haul, spearing a yorker into Gabriel’s stumps at the start of his second spell, Wood wheeled away in delight, before snaffling the match ball, kissing it for the crowd and yomping back to a delighted England dressing room.
“I held the ball up and felt so proud, then I got into the pavilion, had hug with the physio Craig de Weymarn – he’s touched me in places my wife never has! – and it all sunk in. It was everything I’d wanted after all I’d been through with injury. I know it’s only one five-fer and there’s Jimmy and Broady with tons of them, but it was so special. I felt I finally belonged in the England Test team. I put the ball in my England cap, sat them next to me and just looked at them. All the emotions came out. I was a bit teary.”
Wood wants to be known for more than just pace and noted the left-handers removed – Hetmyer and Darren Bravo – were done by away movement off the deck, something he and Chris Silverwood had worked on. Wood gushed about the support of the entire England team and staff, not least the psychologist, David Young, who has worked on his self-esteem and taught him to focus on the process of bowling, not the outcome. Sarah, whom he married in December, has been his rock off the field, while the good folk at Durham deserve England’s gratitude as ever.
All this support was needed. Having played only 12 Tests since his debut four years ago, Wood struggled and after his third ankle operation in late 2016, briefly lost his love for cricket. The key was last winter when he learned to push through bowling with niggles to gain physical confidence. A strong Lions tour to the UAE last November led to his recall. It followed a sit down with Trevor Bayliss in Sri Lanka before Christmas, where he had played only one ODI.
“Trevor gave me some harsh truths,” Wood says. “He wanted more ‘Aussie mongrel’ in us, to have good body language, go to the Lions, prove I’m a step above them. I trained smart, focused on the processes [that Young taught me] and things clicked. I have had some mental scars but coming back into Test cricket, I felt so ready. That’s the definition of freedom, not even thinking about it – just bowling.”
Making England’s World Cup squad is certainly a goal, with the five one-dayers against West Indies that start on Wednesday a final chance to impress before the provisional group are selected. Wood knows competition is high and, as regards the first XI, he feels he is battling Tom Curran and David Willey for one spot.
“Add one more with Jofra Archer too,” says Wood, in reference to the Barbados-born quick who is soon to qualify for England duty. “But the competition pushes everyone. I’m desperate to play in a World Cup in England. I believe we’ve got the best team and I’d love to be a part of that.”
Given the deluge of messages he received from well-wishers this week, and an England team delighted to have finally returned fire against West Indies on tour, he is probably not alone.
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