Mark Wood embracing yet another bump in the road

The England fast bowler has grown used to setbacks and, as Vithushan Ehantharajah writes, is staying positive in these most uncertain of times

Wood has learned not to take too much for granted during his career (Getty Images)

When you have had as many bumps along the road as Mark Wood, you tend not to take much for granted.

It is why two of his last three Tests – West Indies in January 2019 and South Africa in January 2020 – have featured his fastest and best spells in Test cricket. And why, when he felt his side go during his 10th and final over in the World Cup Final, he bowled through the pain to finish his allotted set, knowing he was causing himself more damage – enough for it to be his last match of 2019.

It is also why during this enforced period of rest, with time to effectively reinforce his body without worrying about others playing and potentially making him redundant, there’s a sense even amid this coronavirus induced uncertainty that his situation may be too good to be true. After all, those bumps have also led to a few false dawns.

“I’m going to get injured, aren’t I?” he laughs when considering returning after this hiatus. “A week after all this has ended I’m bound to get injured. First net, ankle’s gone!”

Heck, we were all thinking it. How could you not after all these years? Bear in mind Wood was meant to go to Sri Lanka before a scan in the week before England flew out revealed a tear in his right side. His will be a career synonymous with injury. The difference now with Wood is a new sense of acceptance. Less “if only”, more “ah well”.

The chance to think about matters other than his career, ankle or side have been embraced. “We’ve thrown ourselves into family life,” he says of himself, wife Sarah and their first child. Being a cricketer, and even more specifically a fast bowler, means missed series do not equate to more time at home. Various performances camps in Australia, UAE and South Africa have been a feature of most winters when international assignments have not.

It is this familiarity with life on the road that makes him amenable to the idea of spending nine weeks away at a biosecure Ageas Bowl or Old Trafford for what might be a procession of matches against Pakistan and West Indies as part of a 30-man squad. Such a sentence would have been deemed unwriteable in a time before Covid-19, but these are our new realities. Realities relayed to the Test side last week and, on Tuesday, in a further meeting outlining the safety issues to be put in place. All being well – and by “well” see “ideal relative to constant uncertainty” – there will be medically sound, behind-closed-doors international cricket.

“It’s a little bit up in the air at the minute,” says Wood. “We had a chat last week with Ashley Giles (managing director of men’s cricket) and Dr Nick Pearce (chief medical officer) around what the schedule could look like but it’s very much early days with the government deciding what’s going to happen. We follow those rules until we know more.

“The communication has been really good actually, whether that’s literally been about the strength and conditioning and the nutrition side, whether it’s potentially what could happen down the line. All the communication has been really good. I don’t feel under pressure personally, I can’t speak obviously for everybody, but I don’t get that feeling from everybody. I think like we’re all willing to get going as long as the environment is safe, that’s the main thing. We’d all hate to bring things back to families, to cameramen or people working at the ground, the management.”

Talk of competitive action means a step-up in work done. For the time being weights at home in the garage or back garden, Peloton bikes and road running have helped him and his fellow England teammates tick over. But more specialised training is in the offing with talk of local counties or even club grounds opening up for use depending on whichever will be safest and closest for players to use as they reacquaint themselves with bat and ball. As in football, the ECB are working to figure out the size of groups that will be allowed to train together.

Wood has battled with injuries throughout his career (Getty)

For a bowler, things are that little bit trickier. James Anderson reckoned between five to eight weeks would be ideal for him to click into match fitness. No doubt Wood’s experience of dropping in and out – there was a year between his 13th and 14th Test appearance – has him in good stead. Familiarity with rebuilding programmes is just another benefit to regular lay-offs. Just as well considering the last ball he bowled was on 16 February.

“I don’t feel like it would take me that long. I’ve managed to maintain a level of fitness, I’ve got a bike in the house, I’ve been doing some running an I have weights in the garage. I’ve been trying to tick over and trying to strengthen the area in my side – I hope the time off has helped that – and then it’s a little bit of build-up back into bowling.

“I’m not saying I’m quite a Jimmy Anderson, who gets into his groove nice and easy and seems just to be at the top of his game like a magician. He seems to just rock up and hits the top of off stump. I’m not quite like that but, having had these experiences, where I’ve had long periods off and come back determined to be better I’m confident I can do that again.”

He does not think the momentary pause will have a detrimental effect on his speeds, which have been as high and consistent as ever. Nor is there a sense that, for all the family time, he enjoys this mellow sway of time. The vices that become exaggerated at these times, like drink, are ignored just as they were before lockdown. But the urge to run in - and occasionally fall - is just as strong

What he has maintained is the importance of having fun. It was imprinted on him the first time he came across Chris Silverwood at the start of 2018 in Australia. And it is no coincidence Wood’s upturn in form and belief has coincided with Silverwood’s parallel rise from bowling assistant to head coach.

“I’ve enjoyed it with Spoons where he’s basically told me to go out there and try and have as much fun as I can, play with a smile on my face, be that smiling assassin when I’m bowling and I really enjoy having that sort of relaxed atmosphere, especially around me.”

It may be churlish to say Wood has never been in a better place to deal so effectively with such a tumultuous world. But it is hard not to envy someone of such certainty in these uncertain times.