Mark Wood’s waiting game pays off in light speed to rejuvenate England

England’s Mark Wood celebrates taking the wicket of Babar Azam of Pakistan during the third T20 match. Photograph: Alex Davidson/Getty Images

Mark Wood has done a lot of watching in the past six months, waiting for his elbow to heal. By Thursday evening and the second T20 between England and Pakistan he reached breaking point. That night Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan marmelised England’s six-man attack. Wood sat on the sidelines thinking about how he would bowl to them.

“I was watching Babar’s movements, watching Rizwan’s movements, to see if I could spot their tells, and I was trying to analyse all the time what we could do better, could we have bowled around the wicket? Could we have bowled bouncers? Were the slower balls holding up?”