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On 15th August 2021, when Joe Root called upon Mark Wood to bowl the sixth over of the innings, the game was finely poised. England, who had fashioned a 27-run lead a day prior, had not managed to dent India early, and in light of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma’s recent run of scores, were perhaps staring down the barrel of another uninspiring morning.
At that juncture, the decision to introduce Wood into the attack surprised many. Not just because the fast bowler hasn’t been entrusted with the new ball regularly in red-ball cricket, but also because Wood flattered to deceive for large parts in the first essay.
Wood, though, barely took any cognizance of the white noise. Instead, he strapped himself up, marked out his run-up and did what he does best – bowl fast.
Ordinarily, the virtue of bowling fast has allowed a lot of pacers in the past to distinguish themselves from the rest of the pack, for it is something that doesn’t come naturally to the majority.
In simpler terms, despite this particular suit being labeled “fast bowling”, not many over the years have been able to bowl “fast”. There have been seamers who’ve floated to the crease like gazelles and spit fire such as Jeff Thomson, Mitchell Johnson and more recently Jofra Archer. There have also been bowlers who have strained every muscle in their body to bowl fast – people like Dale Steyn and Wood immediately spring to mind.
Yet, despite their best efforts, this particular skill-set has not been as successful in the modern era, considering a lot of players these days are acclimatized to facing high pace. Thus, if such pace isn’t complemented by extravagant seam movement – something that Archer, Jasprit Bumrah, Johnson and Steyn bring to the fore, batters haven’t been troubled as much.
So when Wood bent his back tirelessly on Day 1 and barely had anything to show for it, several termed his extra pace as an asset for the batters, especially on a placid surface at the Lord’s Cricket Ground. Others were cruder and hinted that Wood might be better suited to white-ball cricket, where the batters in their pursuit of increasing the tempo would be more susceptible to such pace.
Fortunately for England, Wood quelled all those fears in a string of fiery spells on Day 4. And while he didn’t bring out the “shushing” celebration ala Mohammed Siraj, there were enough signs that he had silenced his doubters emphatically.
Since the start of the series, Rahul and Rohit have been steadfast in their determination to leave deliveries outside off stump. So much so that James Anderson and Ollie Robinson might well have torn their hair out, had they had the option of doing so.
However, when Wood was brought into the attack at the start of Day 4, both batters looked a tad twitchy. They played at deliveries they have been accustomed to leaving, with Wood’s searing pace also clouding their judgment.
Mark Wood dismissed KL Rahul very early on Day 4
Hence, it wasn’t much of a surprise when Wood got a ball to rear up from a back of a length and induced a false stroke from Rahul. In short, Wood had achieved what no other bowled had done in this series – dismiss Rahul for a single-digit score. That delivery, if the speed gun is to be trusted, was bowled at 150.4 km/hr.
A few overs later, Wood seemed to have found his match when Rohit didn’t balk against the former’s short-ball barrage. The latter showed incredible intent to deposit Wood into the stands over square leg, doing so convincingly in the 12th over.
However, in that very over, Wood’s pace got the better of the Mumbai Indians captain as he mistimed a pull shot and offered a simple catch to Moeen Ali on the deep backward square leg fence – a fielder that was, rather incidentally, placed in that position just a ball ago.
Once Rohit perished, India found themselves in utter strife. Their two most successful batters on this tour had bitten the dust and their illustrious middle order comprising Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli were misfiring.
Kohli continued his batting woes and poked loosely at a Sam Curran delivery, meaning that Pujara and Rahane had to shoulder an enormous amount of burden. To be fair to them, they managed to keep the English bowlers at bay for a session and a half. They pushed, prodded, nudged and nurdled their way to a century-run stand before Wood decided to take matters into his own hands.
Throughout the day and prior to his spell in the third session, Wood had pounded the pitch relentlessly and had extracted every ounce of assistance from a docile surface. But he somehow managed to dig deep into his reserves and unfurled a delivery that could just be the difference between an English victory and another drab stalemate or defeat.
In the 73rd over, when the ball had lost all its sheen and had become as soft as sponge, Wood conjured the unthinkable. Not only did he get a ball to kick up from a good length, which Pujara had no option but to fend, but he also managed to get a batter dismissed in the slip cordon.
In between these three dismissals, there was also a period when Wood continued banging the ball into the track, forcing Pujara and Rahane to scurry for cover. All of it while bowling on a pitch that was as dead as a dodo and was perhaps as close to resembling a concrete slab.
Wood, through extraordinary levels of fitness levels, tons of natural ability and of course sheer determination, had illustrated that there is still a place for raw pace in modern-day cricket, much in contrast to what had been said on Day 1 when he had, according to a few, aided India’s run-scoring endeavors.
Days later, Wood was arguably England’s most potent weapon, and it is fascinating to note that not a lot has changed. If anything, the pitch has become less conducive for Wood’s style of fast bowling, indicating the herculean nature of his performance on Sunday.
There is something special about raw pace. It doesn’t just force the batters to make decisions earlier and quicker, it also prompts them to do something that they wouldn’t do under ordinary circumstances - Rahul and Rohit’s dismissals being perfect examples.
Most tellingly, it offers a glimmer of hope when all seems dull and dreary, and has the potential to make or break cricket matches – a trait that arguably separates searing pace from its other contemporaries in cricket.
For that fact alone, there is nothing quite like pace. Not just because of the adrenaline rush and the trundles of excitement attached to it, but also because of its enterprising and often decisive characteristics. And Mark Wood is most certainly one of its greatest current exponents.
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