England captain Ben Stokes has said that he was awestruck by Mark Wood’s pace and how he gets the crowd going with his thunderbolts as well. While he admitted that Wood’s hard work didn’t help him take many wickets in the second Test against the West Indies at Trent Bridge, he also expects it to in the rest of the matches of the summer. The veteran bowled in full tilt in Nottingham, notably clocking a speed of 97.1 mph in an over when he bowled all the deliveries well over 90 as well.

Speaking at a presser on Thursday, Ben Stokes said as quoted by BBC Sport: “The whole game changes. When his name gets read out, the whole crowd is up, then when the speeds are on the big screen, everyone gets going. Woody is always looking up at the screen as well to see what he’s clocking. He’s got the heart of a lion. He runs in spell after spell, ball after ball. Although he didn’t get the rewards he wanted last week, he knows he affects the game in more than just wickets. That showed last week. I think someone will pay this summer, either West Indies this game or Sri Lanka.”

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Despite being injury-prone, Mark Wood will play back-to-back Tests as Ben Stokes confirmed an unchanged XI for the 3rd and final Test against the West Indies at Edgbaston as well, beginning on Friday. Despite giving away that Wood’s action and speed takes a lot out of him,
Stokes added that he doesn’t want to change the winning combination.

“When you look at the guys we’ve got playing at the moment, with Woody being the standout because of how he bowls, it’s very unlikely we’ll get the remaining Tests out of him because of how hard it is on his body. Even though we’ve got a decent break to the next series, fast bowling is very hard so naturally we may see a change in the bowling line-up. It’s not required yet. It’s tough to not play, but for Pottsy and Dillon it’s great for them to be in the squad,” Ben Stokes concluded.