Olly Stone will be out to put the frustrations of his “stop-start” Test career behind him when he makes his England return this week, vowing to step up and fill the pace void left by Mark Wood’s injury.
Stone will replace Wood for this week’s Second Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s in the only change from last week’s series-opening victory at Old Trafford, during which the Durham quick suffered a thigh injury that has ended his Test summer.
Stone knows all about such issues, having seen his career disrupted by a brutal run of bad luck and fitness problems that have included a torn ACL, broken digits, hamstring injuries and multiple stress fractures of the back.
The 30-year-old made his debut against Ireland at Lord’s in 2019 but has played just two more Tests since, the most recent of those against New Zealand more than three years ago.
“It’s obviously pleasing to be back and I’m loving every minute of it,” Stone said. “My last Test here was my debut so it holds a special place. It’s exciting to go out there and hopefully get a few more wickets.
“It’s been disappointing, stop-start throughout my career. Hopefully, I’ve shown this summer that I can go out there and put a run of games together and hopefully show the performances to warrant being back. Hopefully this is the start of being involved in a few more England squads.”
Wood has been outstanding again for England this summer and clocked 97.1mph during the win over the West Indies at Trent Bridge. Stone’s task, then, in replicating those kind of speeds is unenviable, but he believes he is still capable of providing a point of difference to England’s attack.
“I’ll give it a go but it’s been pretty frightening the way he’s been bowling,” he said. “Hopefully, I can go out there and try and touch his speeds. He’s obviously up there with the fastest in the world so I’m not sure if I’ll match it but I’ll give it a good shot.
“In and around 90mph would be nice. It’s something I’ve always had in my armoury to hopefully go out and provide that bit of extra pace so hopefully I can go out and do that this week.”
England team to face Sri Lanka in Second Test: Duckett, Lawrence, Pope ©, Root, Brook, Smith, Woakes, Atkinson, Potts, Stone, Bashir
