Veteran England pace bowler James Anderson has praised Mark Wood for his stunning all-round performance in the third Ashes 2023 Test at Headingley, Leeds. He claimed seven wickets in the game and also scored 40 runs to help England make a comeback in the series with a win.
In his column for The Telegraph, James Anderson wrote about Mark Wood: “It was brilliant to see Mark Wood bowl so well. We love him in the dressing room. He brings so much energy to the group. He is just non-stop chatting and being silly, trying to make people laugh. He loves bowling fast. He reminds me of Darren Gough in that he likes a glance up to the scoreboard to see if they have put his pace up after he has bowled a ball. He just wants to bowl quickly. He was born to bowl quickly.”
However, James Anderson believes Mark Wood’s cameo in the first innings, where he hit 24 runs off just eight balls, proved to be a crucial knock for England. He ensured that he got the momentum back into the hosts’ favour and also freed up captain Ben Stokes to go for his natural game at the other end as well.
READ MORE: Sanjay Manjrekar dissects Virat Kohli’s poor show in WTC Final
On this, Anderson added: “His bowling helped his batting too. That 24 off eight balls made a real difference in that moment of the game. It was almost like a T20 impact. He did the same in the second innings.”When bowlers go short like that and you need only 20 runs you know that even a top edge is going to go for six and make a big dent in the target. That is what he did.”
Meanwhile, the veteran England pacer James Anderson also feels wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow will eventually do well in the final two Tests of the ongoing Ashes series. However, Bairstow has suffered quite a bit of criticism from cricket experts for his poor show with the gloves.
He wrote: “Jonny Bairstow is someone who wants to contribute to the team all the time, especially playing at his home ground Headingley. There just needs to be a bit of patience from everyone. He is working as hard as he can to help the team and if he keeps doing that he will be fine.”
READ MORE: Harbhajan Singh says Australia have the upperhand in the WTC final
“You are allowed to have a bad game as a player. I have experienced that in the first two Tests of this series. It is not a nice place to be. If he just gets a couple out of the middle of the bat or takes a blinding one-handed catch it will send his confidence through the roof. He has the support of the lads. We will help him as much as we can to keep his spirits up because we know what a devastating player he can be,” he concluded.
However, England will need Bairstow to do well to level the Ashes at Old Trafford, Manchester in the fourth Test from July 19.
