Wood injury concern for England in tour match please log in to view this image IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Mark Wood has taken 119 wickets at an average of 30.42 in 37 Tests By Stephan Shemilt Chief Cricket Reporter at Lilac Hill Published 13 minutes ago 16 Comments England have an injury concern over fast bowler Mark Wood after he suffered tightness in his left hamstring on the first day of the Ashes warm-up match against England Lions. Wood, playing for the first time since suffering a knee injury in February, left the field midway through the second session at Lilac Hill in Perth. The 35-year-old will have a scan on Friday. England hope he will be able to bowl on Saturday's third and final day. Wood bowled eight overs in two spells of four, which England said was a pre-planned workload. England v England Lions - scorecard (external site) He seemed in good spirits when he left the field, joking with England Lions batter Jordan Cox, whom he had just caught on the boundary. But any injury to Wood will be a huge worry to England given his injury record. Wood has not played a Test since August 2024, when he was ruled out of the rest of that year because of an elbow injury. He returned in white-ball cricket at the beginning of this year but sustained a knee injury at the Champions Trophy which subsequently required surgery. The hamstring problem is in the same leg on which Wood had the knee operation. The tour match against the Lions was Wood's first cricket of any kind in nine months and his first in whites for 15 months. Still, on a slow pitch he was immediately up to high pace, hitting 91mph in his first spell. The England selection for the tour game appeared to hint at their plans for the first Test, with Wood part of a five-man pace attack and frontline spinner Shoaib Bashir playing for the Lions. In recent years spin has played a diminished role in Tests in Australia, and Optus Stadium, the venue for the first Test against Australia starting on 21 November, is particularly suited to seam. Another England pace bowler, Brydon Carse, missed the first day of the tour match through illness but is expected to join the game in the coming days. England captain Ben Stokes claimed four wickets in the first two sessions in his first action since July. The all-rounder has been out since missing the final Test of the series against India with a shoulder injury. Australia captain and fast bowler Pat Cummins is out of the first Test with a back injury, while fellow seamer Josh Hazlewood has been cleared of a hamstring problem after an injury scare on Wednesday.
Wood can only ever play alternative tests, he bowls so fast he's not fit for the one after. Although it's usually his back. Same with Archer, so I assume the 'plan' is to rotate those two and use them sparingly as raw pace. First test next week, looking forward to it.
‘AJ’ v Jake Paul apparently nearly agreed for December. Would be great if he was taking it seriously and killed the guy but it’ll be a farce.
Excited to stay up for the first test and go to bed an hour later with England 35/3. Absolute nonsense it’s on BT.
Is BT a channel, or is it TNT? Genuinely don't know. Either way, yes. If it's not Sky, BBC or even Channel 4 (they used to have great coverage) then it'll be ****e. All the old 'dinosaurs' like Botham, Gower, Bumble, Hussain are sidelined because apparently they no longer understand the game, so it'll be largely women presenters. Who definitely do, like.
Yeah TNT. Half the joy of watching cricket is the ****e they chat about. No more Michael Holding to make way for a YouTuber and someone you’ve never heard of who has 278 caps for the England birds’ team.
Interesting the 1st test is Perth. It's usually Brisbane and we always lose. Pace and bounce the key at Perth, so Archer should be key. England have gone raw pace with inky one spinner and Stokes as the back up, although when he's fully fit he's probably better than all of them.
