England’s Wood set to miss second Ashes Test

Mark Wood, an England fast bowler, will miss the crucial second Ashes Test in Brisbane due to concerns about his left knee.

Wood only just returned from a nine-month absence following England’s Perth defeat last week in the first-test match.

The 35-year-old’s innings counted 11 overs as England lost to Australia in their first two-day Ashes Test in 104 years.

Wood was the only player among the 13 players in Queensland who was not at Allan Border Field who did not play at England’s first training session on Saturday morning in Brisbane.

The most likely replacement for Wood would be Josh Tongue for the second Test, which will start on Thursday and will be a day-night fixture at the Gabba.

Wood’s additional setback to Durham and England is a huge blow. Even so, it might dissent from his perspective on the world.

Wood has a turbulent injury history, having been one of the fastest bowlers to ever score for England. He had an elbow issue, then had surgery on his left knee, and he had not played a test since then for 15 months.

Wood managed eight overs in his first Test match against the England Lions before suffering tightness in his left hamstring when he made his on-field comeback before the first Test.

He was cleared of any hamstring issues and given a pass for fitness to play in Perth, where he had match scores of 0-44.

Wood’s availability enabled England to carry out a long-awaited strategy to start beating Australia at the Ashes.

England’s opening day of Test cricket was their fastest overall bowling day thanks to a five-man pace attack at Perth Stadium.

Former Australia fast bowler Jason Gillespie expressed concern for the robustness of England’s attack before learning about Wood’s injury.

Do they have enough work to be physically fit and powerful to bowl consistently high pace throughout the duration of a match before resuming it in other matches? Gillespie appeared on BBC World Service’s “Stumped.”

“That leaves me with a big question mark,” I thought.

England would be concerned about Wood’s absence at the Gabba, which hasn’t won there since 1986.

England have lost three of their previous seven tests in Australia, but they have a poor record in floodlit matches.

Australia has the best pink-ball player in the world in Mitchell Starc’s bowling position, winning 13 of their 14 day-night matches.

Under lights, the pink ball can be harder to see, but it does not behave differently from the red one.

When Starc played a day-night Test against Australia in Hobart in 2022, he last took nine wickets when he bowled over 87mph.

Former England seamer Stuart Broad said: “There’s something about the pink ball, you just can’t pick it up quite as well.” You also don’t see anything, so the seam is black against the pink background, but Mitchell Starc’s in-swinger might come back into the stumps or run around.

It’s just that the pink ball’s lights are reflecting off, making it almost seem like a large planet is coming your way.