England received a boost on the eve of the T20 World Cup final when Mark Wood and Dawid Malan significantly stepped up their involvement in training, putting them potentially back in contention for the game against Pakistan – particularly if the predicted bad weather pushes the start back to Monday afternoon.
Wood, who has a hip injury, and Malan, who has a groin strain, both missed Thursday’s semi-final victory over India and had seemed extremely unlikely to return to fitness in time for the final. On Saturday Jos Buttler was not exactly encouraging about their chances: “They’re both improving,” he said. “Of course it’s not too many days since not being fit enough for the semi-final but we’ll give them every chance possible.”
