IND vs ENG 2022: Why is Mark Wood not playing today's T20 World Cup semi-final?

Mark Wood, England's highest wicket-taker in the 2022 T20 World Cup so far, has been ruled out of Thursday's (November 10) semi-final clash against India at the Adelaide Oval. The pacer didn't bowl much in England's two practice sessions leading up to the second semi-final because of what the English media described as "muscle stiffness."

Chris Jordan, who hasn't played much competitive cricket over the last few months, will replace him in the playing XI. Although Jordan can also bowl across phases in T20Is, he doesn't have the pace and form to replicate Wood.

Wood has nine wickets from four matches in the tournament at a brilliant average of 12. He also holds the record for bowling the most deliveries faster than the 150kmph mark in the tournament so far, 31, which is three times the second-best, Anrich Nortje (eight).

His ability to bowl at hard lengths would have been even more useful against India at the Adelaide Oval, which has short square boundaries. In the four previous matches against the Men in Blue, he scalped five wickets at an average of 25.80.

However, India shouldn't discount Jordan. The 34-year-old has experience performing in ICC tournaments. Overall, he has 18 wickets against India in T20Is at an average of 27.28 and the best figures of 4/27 came at Edgbaston in July this year.

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England playing XI without Mark Wood

England have also made another forced change, with Phil Salt coming in for the injured Dawid Malan. India, meanwhile, have gone with the same team with Rishabh Pant retaining his place.

England playing 11: Jos Buttler (w/c), Alex Hales, Philip Salt, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid.

India playing 11: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (w), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh.

England skipper Jos Buttler won the toss and opted to bowl first. You can catch the live proceedings of the game here.