T20 World Cup 2021 – Mark Wood hoping he and Tymal Mills can ‘bring the fire’ for England

Hamza Hameed October 15, 2021

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Mark Wood hopes to prove once again that two 90mph fast bowlers can make the difference in T20 cricket, as he and Tymal Mills prepare to dovetail in England’s World Cup line-up, just as Wood and the injured Jofra Archer have done in previous campaigns.

Speaking from Oman, where the England squad have been warming up ahead of next week’s tournament opener against West Indies, Wood admitted that he cannot feel 100% assured of a starting berth, but with Mills back in the reckoning, and in line for his first England appearance since 2017 and only his fifth overall, he was confident that their skills can complement one another.

“We’re all competing for places here because there’s only a certain amount of seamers that can play, but I don’t feel like me and ‘T’ are in direct competition,” Wood said. “We’re all part of a squad here that’s trying to win the World Cup, so we’ll all be desperately trying to do that.”

Wood, of course, has enjoyed that World Cup-winning feeling once before, claiming 18 wickets at 25.72 in England’s 50-over triumph in 2019. And while Mills, like Archer, has a repertoire of slower balls that mean pace is not the be-all and end-all of his game, Wood recalled how a focus on the speed gun during that tournament helped to propel the two England quicks to greater heights – both he and Archer matched Australia’s Mitchell Starc in bowling the fastest balls of the tournament at 154kph (95.7mph) – and said he hopes to get his juices flowing with Mills as well.

“It worked for me and Jofra, so me and T might have to keep it going,” Wood said. “He’s looked sharp in the nets, and to watch him, I certainly wouldn’t want to face him. He’s looking the business at the minute so hopefully he can bring some fire and I’ll have to up my game as well.”

Wood is conscious, however, of the need for subtlety as well as speed, especially given the prospect of some less-than-sympathetic tracks for fast bowlers in the UAE. The surfaces at Dubai and Abu Dhabi are likely to be tired ones following the conclusion of the IPL, while Sharjah – the venue for their final two group games, including South Africa on November 6 – is a notoriously tough places for the quicks, with its short boundaries and propensity for excess dew.

“[The conditions] put extra pressure on us to deliver, so we’ll have to be up for the challenge,” Wood said. “We do keep an eye on the pitches there, and it’s not just the wickets, it’s the dimensions – the field in Sharjah is quite small, Abu Dhabi is obviously wide. But it’s good that we get a heads-up [through the IPL].

“My contribution might not just be in the wickets column,” he added. “If it is a spinner’s track, my role might be to keep it down as much as I can and then the spinners can attack from the other end. The thing you have to do is adapt within the game anyway.”

It’s potentially a far cry from the lively surfaces in Ahmedabad on which Wood impressed during England’s 3-2 series loss in India in March – a campaign that had been earmarked as their World Cup sighter until the tournament had to be relocated to the UAE due to Covid. On that occasion, he was habitually unleashed as first-change after Archer, with a licence to attack the Powerplay – most notably with figures of 3 for 31 in an eight-wicket win in the third match at Ahmedabad.