
Mark Wood hoping to play a part in England's Test series against India
The 35-year-old was expected to miss the entirety of the marquee five-match series after undergoing knee surgery in March, the latest in a long line of injury setbacks.
But the Durham quick says he is back bowling in the nets and harbours hopes he could return in the final Test against Shubman Gill's India, which is set to begin on July 31 at the Kia Oval.
'I have just started bowling – very lightly – but I am on the comeback trail now officially,' Wood said on the BBC's Test Match Special.
Mark Wood has taken 119 wickets in 37 Tests (John Walton/PA)
'I am hoping still to play a part in this series. I am still targeting maybe the last Test.
'Anything before that is probably a bit too soon. The last Test I might not get there but at the minute that is still my focus, that I might play a part.'
Wood's ability to hit breakneck speeds of up to 97mph mark him out as an invaluable asset and, if he stays fit, he is likely to be crucial to England's bid to regain the Ashes in Australia later this year.
He is among a lengthy list of pacemen currently on the sidelines, with Olly Stone out for the summer and Jofra Archer and Gus Atkinson missing the first Test at Headingley, which started on Friday.

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Daily Mail
24 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
England left stunned by India on Test opener after Ben Stokes invited opponents to bat - as visitors blitz centuries on course to 359-3
It didn't feel outlandish at the time. When Ben Stokes won the first toss of the series at 10.30am and invited India to bat, his conviction was supported by the stats. The last six Tests in Leeds, after all, had been won by the team bowling first. Eight long hours later, England were on their knees, staring goggle-eyed at a scoreboard reading 359 for three, with centuries for India's ridiculously precocious opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and their first-time captain Shubman Gill, as elegant as he was composed. As Gill walked off at stumps with 127 to his name, his team-mates waited on the boundary to shake his hand. India have won only three Test series in this country in 93 years of trying, and will remain grateful to their new leader if they can tick off a fourth. On cricket's sliding scale of crimes, inserting the opposition and taking three wickets in 85 overs rates curiously highly – more highly, for sure, than folding in a heap after choosing to bat, as India did here four years ago, when they were skittled for 78. And in England's defence is the fact that the modern Headingley pitch – as opposed to its up-and-down predecessors of the 1980s and 1990s – seems to improve as the game progresses. In advance, groundsman Richie Robinson told Mike Atherton he would have bowled too; at the toss, Gill said so would he. Stokes, then, was hardly alone. Yet there was no doubt that the application of the heavy roller three hours before the start robbed the surface of the green hue that had excited social media during the build-up. Nor that the baking sun suggested this was a batting day. At Headingley, they say, you look up, not down. England seemed to have looked too hard at the data. Above all, perhaps, it was a day when the limitations of their bowling attack were exposed at the start of 10 huge Tests in seven months that will require not just strength in depth, but variety beyond 85mph right-arm seam and orthodox off-spin. Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Gus Atkinson are all missing, it's true. But Chris Woakes had a rare off-day on home soil, and Josh Tongue – used as the battering ram as the field spread – went the distance. Both leaked 4.68 an over. Brydon Carse earned the wicket of KL Rahul, well caught by Joe Root in the slips shortly before lunch to end an opening stand of 91; had he not overstepped just after the break, his yorker would have removed Jaiswal leg-before for 45. But this was not just Carse's first home Test: it was his first red-ball game at Headingley, and his rhythm seemed thrown by the slope. And so, for the second Test in succession, it was Stokes who was the pick of the seamers. His first wicket owed something to luck, debutant Sai Sudharsan edging a swinging delivery down the leg side to Jamie Smith, and trudging off for a four-ball duck to signal lunch. His second, soon after tea, was a thing of beauty, beating Jaiswal on the outside edge, and pegging back off stump. But Stokes 2.0 is supposed to be a shock bowler, not a stock bowler, and his two spells lasted six and seven overs – one or two longer than ideal. It was a good job Shoaib Bashir produced one of his most controlled performances, or England might have gone for 400. None of this, though, should detract from the excellence of Jaiswal and Gill, two twenty-somethings at the heart of an Indian team in transition yet apparently unfazed by the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Jaiswal drove crisply at first, then unleashed his cut, taking 96 balls over his first fifty, and half as many over his second. He has now scored a century on Test debut, a century in his first Test in Australia and a century in his first Test in England. Throw in two double-hundreds against Stokes's side in 2023-24, and it hardly needs saying that India have a special talent. He is just 23, and possesses a Test average of 54, with time and room for improvement. It is a frightening prospect. Gill, only two years his senior, arrived without a half-century outside Asia since January 2021, but imposed himself from the start, a velvet glove stroking cover-drives with the power of an iron fist. There is no better way to announce your captaincy than with a century on foreign soil. The confidence both men will derive from their instant success is incalculable. And they are in heady company, since the Indian batsmen who had previously made a Test century at Headingley represent a roll call of some of their greats: Vijay Manjrekar, Tiger Pataudi, Dilip Vengsarkar, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. To compound England's suffering, Rishabh Pant – after launching Stokes down the ground second ball – contributed a typically madcap 65 not out, as 144 flowed in the final session. In the last over of the evening, undeterred by the second new ball, he advanced at Woakes and heaved him into the East Stand for six, ensuring that a day which began with a question mark ended with an exclamation. More than 20 years ago at Brisbane, on the first day of the Ashes, Nasser Hussain famously inserted Australia, who romped to the close on 364 for two. The next few days will dictate if Stokes's decision belongs in the same category.


The Independent
31 minutes ago
- The Independent
Tourists make England toil in run fest at Headingley
England gifted India the initiative on day one of the Rothesay Test series at Headingley, where Yashavi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill rose to the occasion with a pair of fine centuries. Ben Stokes sent the tourists in after winning the toss, perhaps hoping to unsettle a batting lineup missing the star power of the recently retired Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, but the gambit merely handed over first use of serene batting conditions. Jaiswal led from the front with 101 on his first appearance on English soil, while Gill finished unbeaten on 127 in his maiden knock as Test captain. Kohli and Sharma's golden legacies are sure to linger, but India 's future already looks in safe hands. By stumps England were staring at a score of 359 for three, weighed down by a long, draining day in sticky summer heat and a difficult road ahead. Stokes was the pick of the bowlers with two for 43 but Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue struggled to impose themselves in unhelpful conditions. The story was set in motion at 10.30am, Gill calling wrong at the toss and Stokes opting to field. There was a hint of swing from the new ball, shared by the returning Woakes and Carse on home debut, but it quickly became apparent that there were no terrors in the pitch. KL Rahul (42) offered a calm head at the top of the order and Jaiswal, well known to England after helping himself to a monstrous series tally of 712 runs when the sides last met in India, shackled his more explosive instincts as he bedded in. Carse hit him with a rib-tickler in the initial burst but when it came to clear chances, England were coming up empty-handed, squandering a review on Jaiswal when they sent Tongue's ambitious lbw appeal upstairs. India were seven minutes away from a wicketless session when Rahul threw his hands at a wide one from Carse to feed Joe Root at slip. That breakthrough brought the Yorkshire crowd alive and their celebrations had barely dipped when they enjoyed a second. Sai Sudharsan's first Test innings brought a four-ball duck, flicking Stokes down leg and into Jamie Smith's gloves just seconds after flirting with an identical dismissal. If that double strike smoothed some of the rough edges from England's slow start, the afternoon's play exposed them again. Ollie Pope missed the chance to run out out Gill for just one, sweetening the deal with four overthrows, and Harry Brook parried a low edge into the wicketkeeper's helmet to give up five penalty runs. Jaiswal's first half-century occupied 96 balls and he glided through the gears to get his next 50 in just 48, despite several delays for cramp in his hand. Twice he took three boundaries in an over, first taking aim at the lethargic Woakes and later breezing through the nineties at Carse's expense. Shoaib Bashir brought some control in his 21 overs but there was not enough spin on offer to turn that into real pressure. It took a burst of inspiration from Stokes to stop the rot, charging in from round the wicket and toppling Jaiswal's off stump having forced one past the outside edge. By then Gill had progressed to 63 and had set his sights on a captain's century. He got there with his 14th boundary, a peach of a cover drive off Tongue. It was the sixth hundred of his career but his first outside Asia. The unpredictable Rishabh Pant poured on further pain with 65 not out. Starting his innings by charging Stokes for four down the ground, he settled into an extended spell of defence before springing into life with some big hits in the closing stages. Thumbing his nose at convention, Pant danced down again in the final over of the day to flog Woakes over deep square-leg for six.


Scottish Sun
32 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
‘I don't need to somehow remain relevant' – Andy Murray reveals he is set to snub ‘easy' Wimbledon TV punditry gig
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